Shan Masood talks about Sarfaraz Ahmed’s exclusion from the second Test match between Pakistan and Australia. In an interview published on Monday, Pakistani Test skipper Shan Masood discussed the decision to bench wicketkeeper-batter Sarfaraz Ahmed for the second Test against Australia.
Mohammad Rizwan has replaced Sarfaraz, who was only able to score seven runs in the first Test match. Masood stated that it would be incorrect to state that Sarfaraz has been “dropped” prior to the Boxing Day Test.
During a news conference, Masood stated, “We wanted to set a precedent where we wanted to reward people who have been playing red-ball consistently in domestic cricket over the past few years.”
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“You saw that even though a lot of people thought it was risky to put two debutants on the field, Khurram Shahzad and Aamer Jamal were chosen. Their first trip in Australia was really decent, so we have to give them credit for handling themselves effectively, in my opinion. The rationale of playing Sarfaraz remained mostly same.
People like to focus on statistics, and Rizwan has excellent SENA averages. First off, the two are not in competition with one another. They play a similar role in the team. Any rivalry they have is constructive rivalry. We are aware of Rizwan’s past actions, but Sarfaraz was given the advantage because, during his previous tour here in 2016, he averaged 56.50.
“After playing a lot of white ball cricket at the World Cup, Rizwan just returned. In red-ball cricket, too, he had a void after Sarfaraz replaced him for the New Zealand series. Rizwan hadn’t played much red-ball cricket, and Sarfaraz had put on an incredible show there. Thus, there was a process involved.
He has played red-ball cricket there. We were able to get a player like Rizwan in shape because Karachi had a great season and was named the tournament’s MVP. Though it’s not feasible, I would want for both to play if I had my wish. We now believe Rizwan is prepared, and we can give Saifi the brief respite he needs to heal and return.
