Sarfaraz Ahmed is not regretting the loss of captaincy, says his wife

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), on Friday, decided to bring the curtains down Sarfaraz Ahmed’s captaincy tenure. It announced the same in the press conference where Azhar Ali was named the Test skipper while Babar Azam took over the reins in the T20Is. The ODI captain will be finalised later. He has also been dropped from the team now and won’t be picked for the upcoming Australia tour.

Sarfaraz Ahmed himself was present in the presser and wished good luck to the newly appointed skippers. There have been mixed reactions over his sacking but what about the man himself? Is Sarfaraz disappointed over stripping off from captaincy? Well, if his wife Khushbaht Sarfaraz is to be believed, he has no regrets and is not disappointed at all.

Khushbaht cleared that even she is not unhappy with the decision and both of them respect the PCB’s decision completely. “No, neither I nor my husband is disappointed. It is Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) decision and we have to respect it,” she said while speaking to Deccan Chronicle over the telephone from Karachi.

Sarfaraz Ahmed will make a strong comeback

Khushbaht has also shown strong support towards her husband cricketer Sarfaraz Ahmed and expressed that he will make a strong comeback soon. Sarfaraz’s place was always under threat given that his performances with the bat were not great in the last few months. The 0-3 loss to Sri Lanka at home led to his sacking as well and eventually, he lost his place.

“My husband will make a strong come back. He is a fighter and will come back,” Khushbaht further added. The squad for the Australia tour is yet to be announced but the PCB chairman Ehsan Mani cleared on Friday itself that Sarfaraz Ahmed will not be picked. However, he lauded the 32-year-old for his contribution as the captain. Pakistan won the Champions Trophy under his leadership in 2017 and have been dominating the T20I format for long now.

“It has been a difficult decision to drop Sarfaraz Ahmed, who has performed well as a player and a leader. But, his loss in form and confidence is visible and, in the best interest of the team, it has been decided to leave him out and provide him the opportunity to reflect and regroup himself and try to reclaim his form away from international cricket.

“Sarfaraz Ahmed’s contributions are second to none and being the gutsy cricketer and fighter that we all know he is, I have no doubts he will be back in Pakistan colours at some stage,” Mani said according to PCB’s release statement.

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