Rizwan’s exit, Sarfraz’s royal comeback

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is now undergoing a massive reshuffle. Basically, after the whitewash in the Test series against England, the country sacked everything from the board president to the chief selector. A touch of real change in the team too. Shahid Afridi called Sarfraz Ahmed to the Test team after receiving the responsibility of the chief selector. And it burned Mohammad Rizwan’s forehead.

Pakistan’s long-time regular wicket-keeper batsman Rizwan. This right-handed top order has also achieved considerable success in white-ball cricket. However, his bat could not shine like that in white clothes. He failed in the last three-match series against England at home. He scored 141 runs in all three Tests from 6 innings. There is no half-century.

And that’s why Afridi didn’t dare to play him against New Zealand. In his place, the chief selector has trusted the bat of the experienced Sarfraz. And Sarfraz gave the reward of that trust very well. When the batting disaster of the team in the Karachi Test, this wicketkeeper-batsman took the lead. He did not meet the century for a while. Scored 86 runs before returning to Sajghar.

Before this Sarfaraz last played a Test in 2019. Returning to white clothes after almost 4 years, the responsibility of handling the failure of the top order again fell on the shoulders. At such a time, he played with a cool head. He faced 153 balls from the long crease. Sarfaraz also made a partnership of 196 runs with captain Babar Azam. Thanks to him, Pakistan turned around.

Sarfraz is getting praise from everyone for such a royal comeback. Pakistan’s struggling middle order also got some relief. The challenge for the 35-year-old batsman now is to maintain consistency. So far, the test career of 50 matches cannot be called very richly. Where there are only 3 centuries with 19 fifties. Scored a total of 2743 runs from 87 innings.