Azhar Ali stepped down as Pakistan's ODI captain on Thursday (Feb 9), bringing up reasons of captaincy affecting his shape as a batsman. Sarfraz Ahmed will take over the reins of both t20 and odi sides.
In his very last 23 innings as captain, Azhar has scored excellent 1/2-centuries and one hundred. within the currently-concluded ODI collection loss in opposition to Australia, he had ratings of 24, 7 and 6 in his 3 appearances. It emerge as Pakistan's 2nd one-day collection defeat inside the very last 5 months, after losing to England.
Azhar's captaincy credentials don't boast of stellar numbers both as Pakistan slipped to their lowest-ever ninth function in the ODI ratings (even though the in the meanwhile are ranked 8th), having won 12 and out of place 18 games underneath his purview. He controlled to influence Pakistan to without a doubt five wins over the pinnacle eight ODI aspects sooner or later of his stint, all of which got here closer to Sri Lanka. Of the ten bilateral collection that he has led at domestic, the crew has simplest managed 5 wins. - in opposition to Zimbabwe and one each over eire, West Indies and Sri Lanka.
Following the 1-four collection loss to Australia, Azhar copped criticism from former captain Moin Khan, who known as for his axing, saying that he did now not should be captain. the previous skipper became important of the truth that after Azhar became named captain in March 2015, no longer only turned into he an absentee from the squad, however also hadn't featured in an ODI for the reason that 2013. Moin argued that he ought to've first cemented his place within the squad and then exceeded the obligation.
Sarfraz, who has stimulated together with his management within the shortest layout of the sport, has thus far executed 67 ODIs, gathering 1,498 runs at an average of 34.80. underneath his control inside the 4 T20Is that he has led Pakistan, they've picked up wins in all of them.
