World Cup 2019: Sanjay Manjrekar says Sarfaraz Ahmed is no Imran Khan, can’t take Pakistan to next level

Pakistan team has had under par run in the ongoing ICC World Cup 2019 with issues on the field and off the field. The team is placed on the ninth spot in the points table with 3 points to their name with the solitary win coming over hosts England. They have lost to India, West Indies, and Australia, while their match against Sri Lanka was rained out. Following that, former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar looked at captain Sarfaraz Ahmed and his contribution.

All the hullabaloo started after the Sarfaraz Ahmed led side suffered a big 89-run defeat via DLS method to arch-rivals India on June 16. The match was hyped big time before the tournament even began and skipper Ahmed was confident of winning this time, after six losses in past six editions. But now the captain has been under severe pressure and some reports of discontent amongst the team members have added fuel to fire.

Sanjay Manjrekar compares Sarfaraz’s captaincy to Imran’s leadership 

Manjrekar highlighted the difference between the leadership of Imran Khan and Sarfaraz Ahmed. This opinion is also highly valuable since the reports of groupism emerged in the Pakistan side against the captain, who lashed out at his players in the aftermath of India game. Many comparisons were made between the 1992 and 2019 team’s progress in the respective tournaments, as results of all five matches mirror each other.

Sarfaraz Ahmed had copped a lot of blame for the loss against India especially for his decision of bowling first after winning a crucial toss. After the loss, the decision was further criticized as former Pakistani captain and 1992 World Cup winner Imran Khan, who is now the Prime Minister of the country, had advised on Twitter that if Ahmed won the toss, he should bat first.

Manjrekar has stated that Sarfaraz is no Imran and he is not capable of taking Pakistan to the next level. He also mentioned that blaming him for loss against India was not justified since India was a much stronger side when compared to Men in Green.

“Sarfaraz Ahmed is no Imran Khan, he is not going to take Pakistan to the next level, and to be fair blaming him for the loss at Old Trafford is silly. India was a much stronger side and there was not much Sarfaraz could do about it,” the Mumbaikar is commentating in the World Cup was quoted as saying by Cricket Next.

Also read- World Cup 2019: Those who expected Pakistan to lift the cup were daydreaming, says Kamran Akmal

“Imran Khan inspired his team, almost brainwashed them into believing they were better than everyone. It helped that there was great, natural ability already there. All it needed was the right channelling and cricket sophistication & Imran took care of that. When we played Pak in the late 80s through the 90s they had strong leadership. The world hasn’t seen a better captain than Imran Khan. He was self-confident, he’d learnt cricket the hard way. Under Imran, Pakistan had a great team culture, a winning culture,” Manjrekar said.

The Indian cricketer who played in the 1992 World Cup match against Imran Khan’s Pakistan, mentioned that the all-rounder had brainwashed his team into believing that they were world beaters and he channelled his team’s energies correctly. He called Imran the best captain the game has ever seen and mentioned that Pakistan had a winning culture under his leadership.