Abu Dhabi: The calmness that Sarfraz Ahmad brings to the team is phenomenal and, under his leadership, Pakistan firmly believe that their transition to an era without batting stalwarts Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan will be as smooth as silk.
Who would have thought the young man who led Pakistan to victory in the under-19 World Cup and made his debut in 2007 against India, only to be dropped after the Asia Cup in 2008, would come back three years later with a renewed vigour to methodically cement his place in the line-up?
Pakistan’s cricket can be amateurish, random, frantic, extremely unforgiving and, at times, controversial. But those are the challenges that Sarfraz has thrived on.
He is not among the most charismatic of captains you see in modern cricket and he does not have the aura of a warrior. Yet he commands respect. As his unofficial deputy Asad Shafiq put it, “Sarfraz is a leader who carries everyone ahead with him.”
Having enhanced his reputation following the thumping victory over arch-rivals India to lift the Champions Trophy, it was inevitable he would be handed the captaincy duties across all three formats after Misbah walked into the sunset.
And on the eve of his first Test in the new role,Sarfraz accepted that his life has taken a dramatic turn but he was relishing the challenge.
“Yes, certainly life has changed, the responsibilities have changed and are big,” he said. “For me, this is the first opportunity as captain in a Test. It’s a tough challenge and hopefully I will do well. The players are very excited.”
Sarfraz brushed aside talk about the Misbah-Younis void, asserting that it is not a distraction for his team going into the contest against Sri Lanka in Abu Dhabi on Thursday.
“I wouldn’t say so, but to move on we have to remember their [Misbah and Younis’] discipline and how they used to prepare,” he said. “Whatever they told us, we should remember. I spoke with Misbah and he told me a lot of things. I also spoke with Younis so we will try to implement what we have learnt from them and try to deliver the best.”
He added that the team think-tank has focused on strengthening the middle order and is banking on the support he will be receiving from experienced players such as Azhar Ali and Shafiq in the batting.
Sri Lankan captain Dinesh Chandimal for his part accepted that his team are going through testing times but expressed confidence that things would change for the better if they managed to script a win.
“As a team, in the last two series, our performance was below par,” Chandimal said. “From that series we learnt a lot. We have done more work on our fitness and fielding. All the players are in a good shape and all we need to do is win one game and everything will fall into place.
“Younis and Misbah are wily old foxes and they have played really good cricket throughout their careers. Actually we can have a very good advantage because those main two batsmen are not there in their batting unit.”
