Sarfraz Ahmed picked, Mohammad Rizwan dropped against New Zealand. Will Sarfraz succeed?

In September, Pakan’s former bowler Sikandar Bakht landed a bombshell on Geo Tv. He would claim that Mohammad Rizwan had confided to a cricketer that he would never let Sarfraz Ahmed come back into the team. “Sarfaraz will not play now. Our cricket community is quite small, so we get to know a lot of things. A cricketer who does programmes with us told us that Rizwan said, ‘main Sarfaraz ko kabhi aane nahi dunga’ (I won’t let Sarfaraz return to the Pakan team).”
We will never know if that’s true or a fake story unless Rizwan clears it up but as things have turned out under new regime of PCB, with the old hand Najam Sethi in charge, and Shahid Afridi as interim selector for the series against New Zealand, Sarfraz Ahmed has come back from the dead. Rizwan has been dropped. Will Sarfraz grab the opportunity?
There have been at least three incidents in the past that give us a hint.
Moin Khan’s phone buzzed during the 2015 World Cup. When the former Pakan captain checked, he realised it was Sarfraz Ahmed from Australia. Sarfraz sounded troubled. “Bhai, Waqar Younis is asking me to open the batting tomorrow against South Africa. You know I’m not used to batting there. If I fail, I will be out of the Pakan team forever. That’s what they want. Main kya karoon?” (What should I do?) Facing problems with the coach then, Sarfraz wasn’t picked in any World Cup game until South Africa. Moin, who was Sarfraz’s idol, and reason why he turned from a seamer to a wicketkeeper when young, remembers telling him, “Tu yeh soch (Think of it this way), what if you are a success tomorrow? Your whole life would change. Think positive. Forget Waqar and other stuff. Just think about your success tonight.”

.@SarfarazA_54 is making his 5️⃣0️⃣th Test appearance 🙌#PAKvNZ | #TayyariKiwiHai pic.twitter.com/OHcEQXUhNm
— Pakan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) December 26, 2022
As it turned out, Sarfraz hit a brilliant life-changing cameo of 49, and followed it up with hundred against Ireland, and two years later his career has leapfrogged to stardom. When he returned home after the Champions Trophy to Buffer Zone, sandwiched between Karachi and North Nazimabad, his house was engulfed fans — some hanging off parapets of neighbours’ walls and balconies heaving with adrenalin and joy, the window-grills used as hanging points, as everyone jostled for a glimpse of the people’s star. When he waved his arms, people turned delirious.
Even in that Champions Trophy, he had faced a moment of self doubt after Pakan’s loss to India early on in the tournament. That time, he called his mentor Nadeem Omar, the owner of the PSL team Quetta Gladiators, and a patron-saint of Pakan cricket in many ways, who has funded many budding cricketers in his three clubs.
Omar remembered a slightly diffident Sarfraz on the phone line that night from Birmingham. “I told him, I couldn’t see the same confident captain I see in PSL. It seems you are inhibited, and not taking the calls. Tell the team, seniors or whoever, that on field you are in charge, and you are not going to take any slacking.” Sarfraz, Omar recalls, agreed and promised a return to his natural style of leadership in the next games. “I’d told him, if you don’t do well, it might not be just the last time you are captaining but even playing for Pakan. Play it your way; else you will regret later.”
Sarfraz Ahmed (Reuters/FILE)
He reverted to his old style, won the cup, but in a couple of years time, Rizwan would come up to snatch the spot. He has patiently waited for his chance, and it’s come now against New Zealand.
Sarfraz has been destiny’s child in a way. His family wasn’t initially supportive of his cricket. His father, “a man of Allah” owned a stationery shop, and it was a middle-class life. the age of 10, Sarfraz had memorised Quran – he was a hafiz. Two tutors would come to his home every day in the early years to teach him, forming his world view and teaching him the importance of staying humble and grounded.
Sarfraz also came in contact with benevolent mentors. Not far from his neighbourhood, lived Azam Khan, coach at Pakan Cricket Club which has produced several cricketers. “I first saw him when he was around 11 or 12. He was talented. Since his father didn’t like cricket much, he would come secretly to play at my club. Slowly the father warmed up to his cricket, but his father passed away when he was in U-19s.” Azam decided to immerse the kid into cricket to forget the pain and took a young Sarfraz to meet his idol Moin Khan at the PIA team.

It’s to Azam that Sarfraz confided what he really thought about captaincy. When Sarfraz was dropped after making his debut against India in Jaipur, Azam first told him, “I believe you are going to be captain one day.” And Sarfraz laughed. Later, when he was again dropped from the team, Azam said the same, and Sarfraz went, “Bhai, every time I get fired from the team, you keep saying I am going to be the captain! How is that ever going to be possible?”
When he eventually became the T20 captain, Sarfraz landed up at Azam’s house with a box of sweets and said, “I can’t believe it.” When Azam went to the airport to meet Sarfraz after the Champions Trophy, he cried seeing the mass of people gathered to see his ‘bacha.’“And he spotted me and rushed to me. Last night I reminded him about how I used to tell him that he would become the captain one day. And we both had a laugh. He was always a fighter as a kid, never liked losing whichever team he played – club, grade 2, leagues or for Pakan. Whenever he has been fired from the team, he’s never given any excuses about cricket-politics or whatever. He would always work doubly-hard.” How will he go this time?