Former Pakistan captain Sarfaraz Ahmed is currently out of the national side due to his poor forms. However, there is a report that he can return to the national squad at the beginning of the new year 2020.
Pakistan national cricket team had a very tough year in 2019 as most of their performances went totally wrong for them. While they played 41 international matches this year, won only 11 matches, lost 27 games and one had a draw result (two had no result). At one stage, they failed to achieve victory in 12 consecutive international matches (lost 11 matches and one had no result).
In the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019, they had a very poor start. Though they fought very hard till the last moment, they just failed to advance for the semi-finals as they finished in the fifth position in the points table with 11 points.
As a captain, Sarfaraz Ahmed failed to provide good results for the national team. Even after the ICC CWC 2019, when Misbah-ul-Haq joined as the head coach by replacing Mickey Arthur, Misbah put strong belief to the captain Sarfaraz Ahmed. Though Sarfaraz-led Pakistan team beat Sri Lanka in the three-match home ODI series (2-0), they suffered a whitewash in the three-match home T20I series (3-0), and it was not even the strong Sri Lankan side.
Soon after that series defeat, Sarfaraz Ahmed lost his Test and T20I captaincies, and he also lost his place from the national squad. Due to his weak performances, Sarfaraz failed to retain the wicketkeeper-batsman spot in the Test and T20I squads.
Pakistan haven’t found a clue after removing Sarfaraz Ahmed
However, Pakistan’s performances haven’t improved much after the snub of Sarfaraz Ahmed. They brutally lost the T20I and Test series in Australia. Only, at the end of this year, Pakistan won the home Test series against Sri Lanka (they won the two-match Test series by 1-0).
The 27-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Rizwan replaced Sarfaraz Ahmed in the recent T20Is and Tests. But he has failed to take those golden opportunities as he hasn’t put enough strong impact in the T20I side yet.
Pakistan is likely to begin the new year 2020 with the home T20I series against Bangladesh in late January. According to a recent report from Geo News, Sarfaraz Ahmed is expected to be included in the T20I squad for the forthcoming home series against Bangladesh.
Sarfaraz Ahmed expected to be included as WicketKeeper in T20 series versus Bangladesh in Jan 2020. After M Rizwan being not so impressive in T20s, Management has considered former captain. Sarfaraz called for fitness test on 6,7Jan in NCA Lahore. Team to gather in Lahore on 5Jan
— Arfa Feroz Zake (@ArfaSays_) December 30, 2019