Azhar set to lose ODI captaincy

Sarfraz likely to take over as skipper ahead of WI tour

KARACHI: Azhar Ali will have to pay the price of his team’s below-par showing in the One-day International series against Australia which concluded in Adelaide with a crushing 57-run defeat for the tourists on Thursday.

Well-placed sources told ‘The News’ on Thursday that Pakistan cricket’s think-tank has voted for wholesale changes in the ODI line-up with Azhar Ali facing an axe as captain and Sarfraz Ahmed getting the team’s leadership ahead of the tour of the West Indies.

While Azhar failed to impress much as captain, Sarfraz has done well on his debut as Pakistan’s skipper in Twenty20 Internationals. The wicketkeeper-batsman had to miss the ODI series against Australia as he had to return home because of his mother’s illness.

Sarfraz is in fact in line to take over as captain for all three formats though he will have to wait for Misbah-ul-Haq, who is planning to take a decision on his international career next month.

Sources said that even though Azhar has been almost prolific as an opener during his captaincy tenure, even his place in the squad is not certain. Azhar has piled up 1152 runs at 37.19 as captain. However, the team’s overall performance went from bad to worse under his command. Pakistan managed to win five out of ten bilateral series under Azhar, two of them against Zimbabwe, and one each against Ireland, Sri Lanka and West Indies. In all, Pakistan won 12 and lost 18 games.

Azhar is not the only one who is in hot waters in the aftermath of a disastrous series in Australia.

There is also a big question mark on senior players like Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik.

Agencies add: Leadership issues were discussed in a meeting in Lahore during the fourth ODI of this series by PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan, chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq, and Mushtaq Ahmed, the head coach at the National Cricket Academy. They are thought to be united in their belief that Sarfraz should take over the ODI captaincy but will wait until Misbah retires to name a new Test captain.

They differ as to whether Pakistan should move ahead with a single captain, but if they do go down that route it could mean that Azhar is overlooked as the Test successor to Misbah; Azhar is the Test vice-captain and, in Misbah’s absence, led Pakistan recently in a Test against New Zealand in Hamilton. It could also mean the end of an experiment begun after the 2015 World Cup, when, for the first time, Pakistan had three different captains - Shahid Afridi was then the T20 captain.

If Azhar is axed, it will end a difficult tenure that began right after the 2015 World Cup. He was not in the squad for that tournament and had, in fact, not featured in an ODI since January 2013. What he did have going for him was a secure position in the Test side, and good form in List A cricket: in the domestic Pentangular Cup that season he was the leading scorer with 302 runs at an average of 60.40 and strike rate of 86.28. In the President’s Gold Cup, he scored 234 runs at a strike rate of 86.98.

Under Azhar’s leadership, Pakistan’s slipped to a record-low ninth in the ODI rankings. They have since risen one place to at least be in the running for direct qualification to the 2019 World Cup, but they only scraped into this year’s Champions Trophy. Much of their decline in the limited-overs formats has been building for some time, but it has become much starker under Azhar.

The PCB has been thinking of removing Azhar for some time. In September last year, following a 4-1 thumping in England, Shaharyar had asked Azhar to consider stepping down. Azhar decided to stay on, however, and led Pakistan to a 3-0 whitewash of West Indies in the UAE. That win left the PCB no choice but to retain him for the Australia tour. A day before the first Test in Brisbane, however, Shaharyar again raised concerns, telling Cricinfo that Azhar’s place in the ODI side was on shaky ground and that they were considering replacing him.

What the PCB will be weighing up is the potential impact such a move could have on his position in the Test side. He was Pakistan’s most prolific batsman last year, scoring a hundred in England, a triple hundred in Dubai and then crowning it off with a double at the MCG in the Boxing Day Test; he scored more runs in a three-Test series in Australia than any Pakistan batsman before him.