Azhar Ali was named Pakistan’s new ODI captain on Monday while Sarfraz Ahmad was named as his deputy. As soon as the decision was announced by the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, Pakistani cricket fans were left in a state of shock. The PCB had to choose a captain, but it could have not chosen a worse one. The nomination of Azhar as captain smells of a political decision, especially considering the fact that the chairman himself is a political appointee.
Why Azhar should not be the captain of the national team is a question which has convincing answers. He was neither in Pakistan’s World Cup squad nor in the reserves. How he can be declared captain when he struggles to make a place for himself in the playing eleven is unexplainable. In fact, the last time he played a match for Pakistan was in January 2013. Two years have passed since he made it to the field to represent Pakistan. All in all, he has only played in fourteen ODIs. His appointment will have a demoralizing effect on those who are not only senior to him but deserved the captaincy based on their experience and performance. They will be demotivated by the fact that a captain will now lead them who struggled to book a permanent place in the team. Such political decisions by the respective cricket boards have already wreaked havoc on the West Indian and Zimbabwean cricket teams; it seems like now its Pakistan’s turn.
Azhar Ali should never have been named Pakistan’s captain. The question remains: if not Azhar Ali, then who? I have at least three names in my mind that I think should have come way before Azhar Ali when the matter was under consideration.
The top choice would of course be Muhammad Hafeez. He has previously been Pakistan’s captain for the T20 format; this would give him an edge over everybody else in the dressing room looking up to being appointed as the captain. He is also one of the most experienced players who currently represent Pakistan after Afridi and Misbah, who has recently retired from ODI cricket. Not only has he been the number one all-rounder in the world according to the ICC rankings, he also has the most number of wins in T20s as Pakistan’s skipper. Why can’t he be allowed to replicate the same success in ODIs?
Then there’s Wahab Riaz. If Hafeez doesn’t match the criteria, Riaz has to be my second choice. I don’t think a lot of people would disagree after his spell against Australia in the World Cup quarter-finals. It is a sad fact that fast bowlers are not really given opportunities as captains the world over, even though two of the most successful captains in Pakistan’s cricket history, Imran Khan and Wasim Akram, were both fast bowlers. A passionate captain can motivate his team and unite them, and if there’s one fact about Riaz that no one can doubt is that he plays with passion. He has played in 54 ODIs and is much more experienced than Azhar Ali. Why not give him the captain’s role on a short term basis and see where he takes the team and then decide on whether he should be retained as the captain or not?
My final pick for captain has to be Azhar’s own deputy, Sarfraz Ahmad. Besides a successful World Cup stint as both an opener and a keeper, including being declared the man of the match in two out of the three matches he played, the youngster has already played 38 ODIs for his country. A young and enthusiastic captain like Sarfraz Ahmad can do wonders for the team just like Graeme Smith did for South Africa after he was given the huge responsibility. He is a keeper and is usually calm even though he plays in an aggressive fashion, and I can’t help but think of a future Dhoni in him. What is less known about him is the fact that he captained the Pakistani Under-19 side to a victory in the 2006 U-19 World Cup.
Azhar Ali is a bad choice as the captain of the ODI team. There are others who deserve it more and are more capable of handling the role as the captain. Nevertheless, he has been confirmed to be the captain. I wish him the all the success in the world and hope that he will come up to the expectations of the fans. All he needs to do is play good cricket. As Kapil Dev once said:
‘‘If you play good cricket, a lot of bad things get hidden.’’
