Sarfraz Ahmed: “Azhar has put up brilliant performances for Pakistan in tough times”

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Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed has insisted that he isn’t worried about the form of batsman Azhar Ali and left-arm seamer Mohammad Amir going into the historic Test against Ireland.

Going into the match, which will be Ireland’s first-ever Test fixture, Azhar and Amir failed to have much of an impact in the two warm-up games against Kent and Northamptonshire.

Azhar made scores of 15, 9 and 10, while Amir only took one wicket, which came in the match against Kent.

Despite this, Sarfraz reiterated that he is not fretting about either player.

“Nothing to worry about. Azhar has put up brilliant performances for Pakistan in tough times and I am confident that he’ll continue to do that in the near future,” he was quoted as saying by the Business Recorder. “If we talk about practice matches, Amir hasn’t taken any wickets at all but his rhythm is coming back and he’s bowling well. I am hopeful that he tries to perform well and bowls well if he gets a chance.”

As for the team’s strategy for the Test match against Ireland, which starts on Friday in Dublin, Sarfraz revealed that he will look to include five bowlers in the team.

“We tried to play our best combination in the last warm-up match,” he said. “We will try to play five bowlers because we need to take 20 wickets to win but we’ll first assess the conditions in Ireland then decide on the combination.”

Sarfraz also admitted that his side cannot underestimate Ireland as they will be playing on home soil.

“Ireland is a strong team in their conditions, they have a lot of experience in these conditions and most of their players regularly play county cricket. We’ll try to give them a good fight and try to win this match,” he added.