It's too early for Sarfraz Ahmed to replace Azhar Ali: Wasim Akram

Former Pakistan skipper Wasim Akram feels that it’s too early for Sarfraz Khan to replace Azhar Ali as the ODI skipper. The legendary left-arm fast bowler played down the idea of removing Ali as the skipper and asked people to judged these two after the West Indies series.

Sarfraz Khan made his captaincy debut yesterday in the one-off T20I against England at Cardiff. Azhar Ali, on the other hand, had a very disappointing time in the ODI series which the Men in Green lost by 4-0 margin.

“Sarfraz showed quality of a good captain, he was calm and remained in control. He never seemed to panic. He made bowling changes very well,” Akram was quoted as saying.

“But I don’t think that Azhar should be removed and it is too early for Sarfraz to replace him, let Sarfraz and Azhar continue with what they’re doing. Judge them after the West Indies series,” he added.

Pakistan bowlers, especially Wahab Riaz and Hasan Ali gave very inspiring performances. Bowling first, the bowlers restricted England to 135/7 and then chased down the target with nine wickets to spare after the opener Sharjeel Khan and Khalid Latif went berserk in the 2nd innings. This win gave a very satisfying end to their tour.

England, for the first time in the tour, had no chance of winning. They were completely outclassed.

“Pakistan outclassed England in all departments of the game, it was great to see them playing with a proper plan and the energy they exhibited in the field was outstanding which helped them throughout the match,” Akram said.