Aaqib Javed: “Since 2015, he has been struggling for his place in the team. He became a captain by accident as the boards make changes after every World Cup”

Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo

Former Pakistan pace bowler Aaqib Javed believes that Sarfraz Ahmed “became a captain by accident” and that he “has been struggling for his place in the team”.

Javed’s comments come after Pakistan lost to arch-rivals India by 89 runs via the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method in their World Cup clash on Sunday.

India’s victory extended their unbeaten streak against Pakistan as they have now won all seven of their meetings against their arch-rivals in the World Cup.

To make matters worse, Pakistan have now only won one of the five World Cup games they have played.

“Sarfaraz is not a captain of that calibre. Since 2015, he has been struggling for his place in the team. He became a captain by accident as the boards make changes after every World Cup,” Javed told the Mumbai Mirror. Since the 2017 Champions Trophy final, Pakistan have done nothing… they even lost to Australia and New Zealand in the UAE.

“As a captain, he can’t demand anything in front of chief selector Inzamam-Ul-Haq and [head] coach Mickey Arthur. They dropped Wahab Riaz and he was not in their plans. Asif Ali was not in their original squad. If you want to look at their planning, they dropped a player whom they had groomed for two-and-a-half years. The captain and coach fail to support their players.”

Pakistan’s next World Cup match will be against South Africa at Lord’s on Sunday.