Mickey Arthur reckons Sarfraz Ahmed is becoming a better captain day by day

The Pakistani team had a rather successful tour to the United Kingdom. They won the historic Test against Ireland, drew the Test series in England 1-1 and then both the T20Is vs Scotland. The head coach of the team Mickey Arthur is pleased with the performance and with captain Sarfraz Ahmed’s leadership but at the same time feels he has a lot of scope to improve as a Test batsman.

The wicketkeeper has always earned laurels for his leadership and how he has inspired the young team to achieve unthinkable goals at times. However, Sarfraz’s personal form in Test cricket hasn’t quite matched expectations. In the two Tests against England, he scored 31 runs and averaged 10.33 in the series.

DHe will bounce back

Overall in his career, the 31-year-old has played 41 Tests and has 2267 runs to his name at an average of 37.78 with three hundreds and 14 fifties. Though he bats pretty low in the order, Sarfraz has to make sure his bat starts to talk sooner.

“I feel that Sarfaraz is coping really well,” Pakistan coach Arthur told PakPassion. “He hasn’t got the amount of runs that he would have liked to have accumulated and he knows that. But, he will bounce back certainly in Test cricket.

“I feel that his captaincy is getting better and better tactically on the field. And we need to be mindful that this is a very tough job to captain in all formats of the game, keeping wickets as well as batting in the top 6 in games as well. That is a hell of a tough job for anyone,” he added.

One of the best leaders

Having seen some of the better leaders in his career as a player and coach the South African said that the kind of respect Sarfraz commands from his team is amazing. The fact that he is a friend to the players and at the same time takes a tough stance when the need be helps him gel with the team at the same time get the results.

“I have been fortunate to work with a lot of very good captains in my time but the way Sarfaraz leads these boys and the respect he has in the dressing room, and the way the boys respond to him, his balance of firmness on the field and friendship off the field is as good as I have ever seen.

“People never see that but Sarfaraz carries that balance on and off the field so very well. We just need to give him some breathing space here. He is also working exceptionally hard on his fitness and he never shirks from any training. I have no doubts that he is the right man to lead the team and that he will get runs sooner rather than later,” Arthur stated.

Leave a legacy

Talking about his own time in the country as the top-man handling the team he said that his objective was not just to draw the salary at the end of the month. The 50-year-old wants to leave a legacy behind and wants the Pakistani people to remember him even when he is gone as someone who set them up for great things.

“What I will say is that this is a job I am very passionate about and one that I absolutely love. We have certainly changed the direction of thinking and put a lot of emphasis on areas that we need to improve upon. One day when I am not Pakistan coach any more, I would like people to say that we had a foreign coach and a coaching team that came with him and they have left a legacy for Pakistan cricket,” Arthur told PakPassion.

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