Current Pakistan One-day International skipper and Test team vice-captain Azhar Ali is on the radar for the upcoming five-match ODI series against Australia as Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Shaharyar Khan has openly admitted that they don’t expect anything best from Ali.
“We are more than happy with Azhar as a player, human being and a person. But his leadership skills have not given us confidence and his place in ODI side is on shaky ground. It is also a fact that we had left it up to him to step down as captain during the England series but after a collective decision we decided to allow him to carry on for the West Indies series,” said Shaharyar Khan.
The 29-year-old wicket-keeper batsman Sarfraz Ahmad is the favourite contender to replace Azhar Ali in the ODIs before eventually taking over the Test throne from Misbah-Ul-Haq after his retirement which seems a quarter away.
“Sarfraz is a strong option because we might even consider him for all three formats as captain. In our culture, it is always best to have one captain for all three formats in Pakistan cricket and historically it works for us. We don’t like to force anyone to take decisions we don’t work like that. And we would like to see a senior player go out with honour and respect,” he added.
Having three different captains for the three formats was a better idea and Pakistan in past had done so, but for some certain reasons it didn’t work for them as a group.
Octogenarian PCB supremo Shaharyar also stated if the Australia tour does not go well we have also thought about possible back-ups for the national side.
“Even at 42, he [Misbah] is super fit and I told him recently it was his decision when to retire. It is true that for a top player it is always hard to leave the adulation and fame. But we would like to see that change,” Shaharyar reiterated.
In 2015, Azhar was not picked in the Pakistan World Cup squad which had a disappointing showing at the 2015 World Cup but was handed over a captaincy soon after that.
Under Azhar’s tutelage, the team tumbled to ninth position (now number 8), in the ICC ODI Rankings which figured the total points of 86 and that was lowest-ever Pakistan has gone through.
Under the leadership of Azhar, Pakistan has played nine ODI series and have won four series including the wins against Ireland and Zimbabwe.
After the 4-1 loss in ODI series against England in September, Azhar refused to hand over his captaincy after facing the heat.
In October 2016, Azhar, who is considered lacking in leadership qualities had recently led his national team to a 3-0 victory over the West Indies in UAE.
“It’s really tough to make a decision after a captain won it [the West Indies series] by 3-0, but still I believe it’s purely Azhar’s own decision to let it go and he earlier refused to relinquish his captaincy,” Shaharyar added.
However, the Pakistan Head Coach Mickey Arthur came to the rescue of Azhar as he wanted him to continue as a skipper.
The 31-year-old had featured in 42 ODIs for Pakistan scoring 1568 runs at an average of 40.20 which includes 3 hundreds and 9 fifties. He has also picked four wickets while sending down 43 overs conceding 260 runs.