Pakistan cricket since its birth is known to be one minute down, next minute up. Their recent performances have disappointed the management and the nation in the calendar year, 2019. The winning streak of 11th consecutive T20 matches under Sarfaraz’s captaincy came to an end when they started losing back to back matches. However, a few poor performances decided the fate of Sarfaraz Ahmed, the champion who lifted ICC U19 World Cup trophy and ICC Champions Trophy 2017, and slide him down from the squad and captaincy as the new management took over Azhar Mahmood, Mickey Arthur, and Grant Flower.
In the year 2019, the team, the players, the management, the captain, the coach, in short, each and every cricketing body was criticized by the nation as the team wasn’t making it up. The horrendous defeat in Asia Cup and then the journey in the ICC World Cup 2019 badly affected the reputation of the Pakistan Cricket Team. On the behalf of the player’s poor performances, it was the captain Sarfaraz who received almost all of the hate over social media and talk shows that the management sacked him from captaincy without thinking for a moment about the ranking he gave them in the T20 format, from all formats of the game.
Sarfraz Ahmed had resigned as captain of all formats before the November-December tour of Australia and Babar was ruled out of the T20, Azhar was ruled out of the Tests and ODIs. With new management, new decisions, the team once again shrunk more than before.
The downfall of Pakistan Cricket, was it only Sarfaraz Ahmed to be blamed?
However, Team Pakistan’s key performance can still be seen under Babar as the short-form captain, while Misbah has taken over several management positions since Sarfraz’s removal. After a long victory, defeats in some matches reversed the administration’s decisions against Sarfraz that may have been a little earlier. The COVID-19 epidemic has spread in 2020, causing sports bodies to be locked down and affected. When this comes to an end, the real face of Pakistan cricket can be properly seen under the new management and captains as it obviously takes time to sort things out and the team has new selection criteria, management, captains, and coaches. Only a few matches were played under new coaching and captaincy.
However, since the time Sarfaraz Ahmed has gone, the nation misses his aggressive behavior in the field and his voices motivating the player from behind the stumps which kept the game energetic and players in the position.
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