20 Facts about Sarfraz Ahmed: Pakistan’s new age skipper

Sarfraz Ahmed is one of the most promising young talents from Pakistan who is being tipped to lead the national side across all formats sometime in the future. He has already taken the captaincy reins of the shortest format. Take no credit away from the lad, who made giant strides in world cricket ever since making his first appearance at the U19 level. Here are interesting facts about Sarfraz Ahmed:

1. Hailing from a reputed background:

Sarfraz was born on 22 May 1987 at Karachi, Sindh. He is the son of late Shakeel Ahmed Siddiqui who was the owner of Shakeel Brothers publishing house. The publishing house is one of the most renowned publishing companies in Pakistan. He hails from the Wassan family of Gujjars.

2. Memorized Quran at the age of 10:

He became a Hafiz-e-Quran when he was just 10 years of age. The term is used for the people who completely memorize the Quran.

3. Life of an engineer:

Sarfraz studied Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics from Dawood University of Engineering and Technology at Karachi.

4. Herculean efforts at the U19 level:

Sarfraz made an early start to his cricket career. He was drafted into the U19 national side and he found himself leading the team. He led the Pakistan U19 team in the ICC U19 World Cup in 2006. He emerged as one of the leading young wicket-keepers. In 15 matches at the U19 level, he had 23 catches and 6 stumpings to his name to go with an excellent batting average of 39.75.

5. Emergence of a new leader – Got the arch-rivals reeling:

It was the final of the ICC U19 World Cup 2006 at Colombo when arch-rivals India locked horns with Pakistan. Pakistan were bundled out for a paltry 109. What followed was great captaincy by a young Sarfraz, who pepped up the team to have India U19 reeling at 9/6 in their run chase. India U19 were eventually bowled out for 71 as Pakistan U19 lifted the coveted trophy under his leadership.

6. Rubbing shoulders with the big boys soon after:

Performances in the age-groups saw Sarfraz being drafted into the domestic season and he played for Karachi and Sind in his debut season. With an aggregate of 523 runs that included 5 half centuries to go with 28 dismissals with his gloves, he had announced himself at the big stage.

7. ODI debut at 20:

Sarfraz Ahmed was named in the Pakistan squad as a reserve keeper for Kamran Akmal during Pakistan’s tour of India in 2007. He made his debut in the fifth match. He did not get a chance to bat though.

8. The preferred keeper role:

In the year that followed, Sarfraz soon emerged as the leading wicket-keeper of the country. He piled up 3 half centuries to go with 21 dismissals in first 5 matches of the next domestic season. He was picked over Kamran Akmal for the Asia Cup in 2008.

9. Test call that followed:

Following Kamran Akmal’s poor outing with the gloves in the first two Tests in Pakistan’s tour to Australia in 2010, Ahmed was drafted into the playing XI for the 3rd Test at Hobart.

10. Fastest Pakistani wicket-keeper to score 1000 runs:

When Pakistan played Sri Lanka at Galle in 2015, Sarfraz scored a gritty 96 off 85 balls that stabilized the Pakistan innings. In the process, he became the 7th wicketkeeper from Pakistan to reach 1000 runs and the fastest keeper, along with Imtiaz Ahmed, to have reached 1000 runs (28 innings).

11. Test ton in 80 balls:

Sarfraz hit a belligerent ton in just 80 balls in the first Test against the touring Australians at Dubai. He ended up with a score of 109 in 105 balls. The match was won by Pakistan by 221 runs.

12. The solitary over:

He has bowled just 4 deliveries in his first-class career. He gave away 5 runs of those 4 deliveries. That remains to be the only time he has taken the ball in his hands for bowling across all forms and levels of the game.

13. ODI record for most dismissals in an innings:

When Pakistan played South Africa in the ICC World Cup 2015, he scored 49 runs off 49 balls and took 6 catches as wicket keeper to equal theone-dayy international record for most dismissals. His efforts won him the Man of the Match.

14. Maiden ton and successive MoM awards:

In the very next that followed, against Ireland in the World Cup, he scored his maiden ODI ton, 101*, to win the Man of the Match award for the second match in succession.

15. Happily married:

In May 2015, Sarfraz married Syeda Khushbakht Shah.

16. Appointed as the deputy to Azhar Ali:

He was named as the vice-captain of the Pakistan team after Misbah Ul Haq stepped down as the captain after the ICC World Cup 2015. He was tipped to be the next captain, however, the selectors opted for Azhar Ali ahead of him.

17. One match captain:

When Azhar Ali was injured during Pakistan’s tour to Zimbabwe, Sarfraz stepped in as the captain in the 3rd ODI of the series. Pakistan won the match by 7 wickets.

18. Taking the Gladiators to the finals in inaugural PSL:

He was named as the captain of the Quetta Gladiators in the inaugural edition of the tournament. He led his team to the finals of the tournament but lost to Islamabad United in the finals.

19. The new role:

After Pakistan suffered an early exit from the World T20 in 2016, the then skipper Shahid Afridi stepped down as the captain of the T20 side. Sarfraz Ahmed was then named as the new in-charge of the Pakistan T20 team.

20. Major teams:

The teams that he has played for in his career so far are- Pakistan, Karachi Dolphins, Karachi Harbour, Pakistan A, Pakistan International Airlines, Pakistan Under-19s, Quetta Gladiators, and Sind.