Haroon Rasheed: “As far as Sarfaraz Ahmed is concerned, he has given outstanding performance in Test cricket, there is no doubt about it, and that’s why you see him in the Test squad”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Haroon Rasheed, the former chief selector, believes Pakistan wicketkeeper-batsman Sarfaraz Ahmed’s spot in the Test team is safe.
He noted that the former captain has performed well, especially when he first returned for the two-Test series against New Zealand from December 2022 to January 2023.
In that series, Sarfaraz replaced Mohammad Rizwan as the go-to wicketkeeper-batsman in the playing XI and scored 335 runs, which included a century and three fifties, at an average of 83.75.
The 36-year-old retained his place for the two-Test series against Sri Lanka in July, but only scored 32 runs at an average of 16. However, it should be noted that he was replaced by Rizwan during the second Test in Colombo as he was struck on the helmet.
“As far as Sarfaraz Ahmed is concerned, he has given outstanding performance in Test cricket, there is no doubt about it, and that’s why you see him in the Test squad,” Rasheed told Cricket Pakistan.
Sarfaraz was not picked for Pakistan’s three-match ODI series against Afghanistan or the Asia Cup, where the men in green thumped Nepal by 238 runs, shared one point apiece with India after their match was ruined by rain, and cruised past Bangladesh by seven wickets.
However, they were dealt their first loss when India beat them by 228 runs in the Super Four stage.
Despite this, they still had a chance to make it to the final, but ended up losing to Sri Lanka by two wickets via the Duckworth–Lewis–Stern method (DLS) method.
Pakistan will now be involved in the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup in India, which gets underway on October 5.
Their opening match will be against the Netherlands on October 6 in Hyderabad.
Pakistan Squad for 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup: Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Abdullah Shafique, Babar Azam (capt), Mohammad Rizwan, Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Salman Ali Agha, Shadab Khan, Usama Mir, Mohammad Nawaz, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Hasan Ali