PCB comes up with an ill-timed tweet just after Sarfaraz Ahmed's sacking; deletes later

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) sacked Sarfaraz Ahmed as captain on Friday. They decided to appoint Azhar Ali at the helm in Tests while Babar took over the reins in the shortest format. The decision on the ODI captaincy will be taken later as Pakistan are not scheduled to play any 50-over format game in the near future. However, a tweet from the PCB’s official Twitter handle has caught attention now.

Sri Lanka whitewashed Pakistan in front of their home fans in the recently concluded T20I series. It led to the cricket board taking stringent steps as many weren’t impressed with Sarfaraz’s captaincy. Reports also surfaced that the new head coach and chief selector Misbah-ul-Haq was not happy with Sarfaraz not leading from the front.

PCB’s timely tweet

The PCB announced the decision in the press conference on Friday afternoon. But what caught Twitterati’s attention was the board’s tweet soon after the announcement. The official Twitter handle of T20 World Cup tweeted about the sale of tickets starting and asked the followers if they are ready for the big dance.

The PCB then responded to the tweet with the GIF in which Fakhar Zaman was seen dancing in joy in front of Sarfaraz Ahmed. While it was only a response to the normal tweet, the time of the tweet has come under the scanner here. The tweet was also deleted soon which has raised more doubts. It also clears that many weren’t impressed with Sarfaraz’s captaincy.

Sarfaraz Ahmed has also been dropped from the Pakistan team for the upcoming Australia tour. Though the squad hasn’t been announced yet, the PCB chairman Ehsan Mani confirmed the news in the press conference. He told that the wicketkeeper-batsman has been given time to regroup himself during his time away from international cricket. Sarfaraz has also congratulated the new captains and hoped that they will take the team forward.

Pakistan’s Australia tour is all set to commence on October 31 with a practice T20 match against Cricket Australia XI. The first of the three-match T20I series will be played on November 3 in Sydney while the Test series starts on November 21.

Here is ⁦@TheRealPCB⁩ tweet moments after Sarfaraz was sacked. Classy. (Background score courtesy my one-year old) pic.twitter.com/QuCqxQTDXJ

— Osman Samiuddin (@OsmanSamiuddin) October 18, 2019