Sarfraz Ahmed

Sarfraz Ahmed (Urdu: سرفراز احمد‎; born 22 May 1987) is a wicketkeeper and batsman who plays international cricket for Pakistan. He is the national T20I captain of the Pakistan national cricket team and also the appointed vice captain in the ODI format of the game. Sarfraz is generally an aggressive batsman who can score runs at a brisk pace. He is the son of late Shakeel Ahmed Memon who was the owner of shakeel Brothers, a well known publishing company. He was named as Pakistan's Twenty20 International captain following the 2016 ICC World Twenty20 in India.^[1]

Early life

Sarfraz belongs to an Urdu-speaking family. He was born in Karachi.^[2][3] He is also a Hafiz-e-Quran which he became at the age of 10. In May 2015, Sarfraz married Syeda Khushbakht Shah.^[4]

International career

One Day International

Sarfraz was called up by Pakistan as a cover for Kamran Akmal who had a finger injury in the one-day series between India and Pakistan in November 2007. He made his ODI debut in the final match of the series, on 18 November 2007. He didn't get a chance to bat as Pakistan had won the match before he was needed to bat.

In 2008, Sarfraz was selected ahead of Kamran Akmal for the Asia Cup.

In 2015, Sarfraz was selected for 2015 Cricket World Cup but did not get a chance to play in the first four matches. Due to the first frequent losses, he was selected for Pakistan's fifth match of the event against South Africa where he scored 49 runs off 49 balls and took 6 catches as wicket-keeper to equal the one day international record for most dismissals. He was rewarded with the Man of the Match award. In his second match in the world cup he scored 101* against Ireland and he was again named the Man of the Match. The win gave Pakistan a spot in the Quarterfinals of the World Cup.

Sarfraz's notable achievement during the early days of his career was the victory at the U-19 World Cup in 2006 where he led the Pakistani team and defeated India in the final in a low-scoring encounter.

Test

He made his Test match debut in Hobart on 14 January 2010, in the third Test match against Australia, replacing Kamran Akmal who suffered an "error-ridden performance" in the second Test.^[5] He was dropped again after one match.

Return to international cricket (2011)

Sarfraz returned to the international team for the ODI series against Sri Lanka in November 2011 and for the subsequent series against Bangladesh and the 2012 Asia Cup. In the final of the tournament he scored a crucial 46 not out (the highest score from his team) as Pakistan won the match by 2 runs. He was consequently rewarded a Category C contract and selected for Pakistan's next series against Sri Lanka, again for ODIs.

Vice-captaincy

After Misbah retired from the ODI format of the game after 2015 Cricket World Cup, Sarfraz was emerging to be a potential successor. However the PCB went with Azhar Ali for the captaincy and considering Sarfraz led the Pakistan U-19 team, appointed him as the vice captain of the ODI as well as the T20 team.

After vice-captaincy

Sri Lanka Test series (2015)

During the first Test against Sri Lanka at Galle, Sarfraz stabilized the Pakistan Innings by a knock of 96 runs in just 85 balls just could not score the century and was bowled by Sri Lankan pacer Dhammika Prasad. During his knock he became the 7th Pakistani wicketkeeper to reach 1000 Test runs, in 28 inns, jointly the fastest Pakistani wicket-keeper with Imtiaz Ahmed. The knock also gave him the Man of the Match award.

Sarfraz was dropped from the T20 series that followed the Test series against Sri Lanka. Many fans back home were shocked and started to raise questions.^[6] Pakistani coach Waqar Younis said on 6 August that Sarfraz is a key Pakistani player and he should be the next T20 captain of Pakistan.^[7]

Zimbabawe ODI series (2015)

Due to a foot injury sustained by usual ODI captain Azhar Ali, Sarfraz became the captain for the third ODI against Zimbabwe on 5 October 2015. He recorded first win in his debut match as captain.

2016 PSL

Sarfraz was picked by Quetta Gladiators in the PSL players draft on December 21, 2015. He was selected to be the franchise captain for the 2016 season. He led the Gladiators all the way through to the final, losing only two matches before it. But still his team just couldn't make it and they lost in the final to Islamabad United.^[8]

Captaincy

After Shahid Afridi stepped down as T20 skipper on 3 April 2016, the PCB appointed Sarfraz captain of the national T20 team on 5 April 2016. He won his first match in the only T20I against England by nine wickets.^[9] Later his team defeated the 2016 ICC World Twenty20 champions, West Indies with a whitewash in a 3 match series.^[10] This was the first time that Pakistan has completed a whitewash in a 3 match T20I series.^[11]

International centuries

Test centuries

Sarfraz Ahmed's Test centuries
#	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Year	Result
1	103	8	Sri Lanka	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground	2014	Lost
2	109	9	Australia	Dubai, United Arab Emirates	Dubai International Cricket Stadium	2014	Won
3	112	12	New Zealand	Dubai, United Arab Emirates	Dubai International Cricket Stadium	2014	Drawn

One Day International centuries

Sarfraz Ahmed's One Day International centuries
#	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Year	Result
1	101*	38	Ireland	Adelaide, Australia	Adelaide Oval	2015	Won
2	105	61	England	London, England, United Kingdom	Lord's Cricket Ground	2016	Lost

International awards

Test Cricket

Man of the Match awards

S No	Series	Season	Match Performance	Result
1	1st Test – Pakistan in New Zealand Test Series	2010/11	1st Innings: WK 3 ct. ; 96 (86 balls, 13×4) 2nd Innings: WK 3 st. DNB	Pakistan won by 10 wickets.[12]

One-Day International Cricket

Man of the Match awards

S No	Opponent	Venue	Date	Match Performance	Result
1	South Africa	Eden Park, Auckland	7 March 2015	49 (49 balls, 5x4, 3x6); WK 6 ct.	Pakistan won by 29 runs (D/L).[13]
2	Ireland	Adelaide Oval, Adelaide	15 March 2015	101* (124 balls, 6x4); WK	Pakistan won by 7 wickets.[14]
3	Sri Lanka	R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo	19 July 2015	77 (74 balls, 7x4); WK 2 ct. 1 st.	Pakistan won by 135 runs.[15]
4	England	Sophia Gardens, Cardiff	4 September 2016	WK ; 90 (73 balls, 10x4, 1x6)	Pakistan won by 4 wickets.[16]

Twenty20 International Cricket

Man of the Match awards

#	Series	Season	Opponent	Match Performance	Result
1	Pakistan vs New Zealand in UAE	2014/15	New Zealand	WK ; 76* (64 balls: 8x4, 2x6)	Pakistan won by 7 wickets.[17]
2	Pakistan vs West Indies in UAE	2016/17	West Indies	46* (32 balls: 5x4); WK 2 ct.	Pakistan won by 16 runs.[18]

See More

• Sarfraz Ahmed Twitter
• Sarfraz Ahmed on ESPN
• Sarfraz Ahmed Profile On cricbuzz
• Sarfraz Ahmed Profile On ICC
• Sarfraz Ahmed Profile on PCB
• Sarfraz Ahmed Facebook

References

Pakistan squads
Pakistan squad – 2012 Asia Cup (2nd title) 1 Misbah (c) 2 Hafeez 3 Jamshed 4 Khan 5 Shafiq 6 Cheema 7 Ali 8 Ahmed (wk) 9 Ajmal 10 Azam 11 Rehman 12 Riaz 13 Umar Akmal 14 Gul 15 Afridi Pakistan squad – 2015 Cricket World Cup 3 Umar Akmal (wk) 10 Shahid Afridi 14 Sohail Khan 19 Ahmed Shehzad 22 Misbah-ul-Haq (c) 47 Wahab Riaz 54 Sarfraz Ahmed (wk) 75 Younis Khan 76 Mohammad Irfan 77 Nasir Jamshed 86 Yasir Shah 89 Haris Sohail 91 Ehsan Adil 92 Sohaib Maqsood 94 Rahat Ali Coach: Waqar Younis Rahat Ali and Nasir Jamshed were named as replacement players for Junaid Khan and Mohammad Hafeez respectively. Pakistan squad – 2016 ICC World Twenty20 1 Shahid Afridi (c) 2 Mohammad Hafeez 3 Imad Wasim 4 Mohammad Sami 5 Ahmed Shehzad 6 Mohammad Amir 7 Khalid Latif 8 Sarfraz Ahmed (wk) 9 Wahab Riaz 10 Shoaib Malik 11 Sharjeel Khan 12 Mohammad Irfan 13 Umar Akmal 14 Anwar Ali 15 Mohammad Nawaz Coach: Waqar Younis Sharjeel Khan, Mohammad Sami, Khalid Latif and Ahmed Shehzad were named as replacement players for Babar Azam, Rumman Raees, Iftikhar Ahmed and Khurram Manzoor respectively.