Aleem Dar: “I believe every one of them had different qualities but if someone had superior game awareness and better captaincy skills then it was Sarfaraz”
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Aleem Dar, the renowned cricket umpire, believes that Sarfaraz Ahmed was a better captain than current Pakistan skipper Babar Azam.
Explaining why he holds this view, Dar noted that Sarfaraz “had superior game awareness” and possessed all-round better leadership skills than the 28-year-old Azam.
“I believe every one of them had different qualities but if someone had superior game awareness and better captaincy skills then it was Sarfaraz,” he was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
“I think a wicketkeeper is a better decision maker because he is well aware of what the bowler is bowling and that is why I think it is very important that a wicketkeeper should be the captain.”
Azam and Sarfaraz recently featured in the two-Test series against Sri Lanka, with the former scoring 76 runs at an average of 25.33. Sarfaraz, meanwhile, made 32 runs at an average of 16 but had to be substituted off in the second Test after being struck on the helmet.
With Pakistan having won that series 2-0, they will now take on Afghanistan in a three-match ODI series in Sri Lanka from August 22 to 26.
Following that, they will jump straight into the Asia Cup, which will be played in Pakistan and Sri Lanka from August 30 to September 17.
Pakistan Squad for Afghanistan ODI Series and 2023 Asia Cup:Â Babar Azam (capt), Shadab Khan, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Fakhar Zaman, Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, Saud Shakeel (Afghanistan series only), Salman Ali Agha, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Usama Mir, Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Tayyab Tahir, Mohammad Haris (wk), Faheem Ashraf, Mohammad Wasim Jnr