Sarfaraz Ahmed Psl 2023 As Captain – QG Downfall In Psl 8
Sarfaraz Ahmed as we all know was well known for his captaincy skills and was decent with the bat as well, he also lead Quetta Gladiators as Champions of the Pakistan Super League as well as in many finals of the tournament when the tournament was used to play in UAE but everything has changed since the tournament has came back to Pakistan as a whole Quetta Gladiators have struggled big time and it has continued in PSL 2023 as well, let’s discuss some of the major reasons of this downfall which are as follow;
QUETTA GLADIATORS PSL 2023 STANDINGS:
Quetta Gladiators have failed to qualify for the playoffs in last 3 out of 4 seasons of Pakistan Super League and things are not looking different this season as well as Quetta is on the verge of another ROUND 1 EXIT from the tournament under the captaincy of Sarfaraz Ahmed and the standings of previous 4 seasons for Quetta are as follow;
PSL 2020 – 5
PSL 2021 – 6
PSL 2022 – 5
PSL 2023 – 6
SARFARAZ AS QUETTA’S CAPTAIN (2020-23):
No doubt Sarfaraz Ahmed was a champion cricketer and he served Pakistan as well as the franchise Quetta Gladiators as their captain bug now things have changed drastically in the past 4 years but no one is ready to talk about this problem for Quetta Gladiators, Sarfaraz Ahmed’s record as PSL captain from 2020-23 for Quetta is as follow;
MATCHES – 36
WON – 11
LOST – 25
- THESE NUMBERS ARE WORSE FOR ANY CAPTAIN AND IN THE CASE OF SARFARAZ AHMED THESE ARE HORRIBLE BECAUSE HE WAS NAMED AS A SEASONED CAPTAIN BUT THESE STATS SUGGEST SOMETHING OTHERWISE TO WHAT WE HAVE BEEN TOLD.
SARFARAZ AS A BATTER IN PSL 2023:
The former National team’s captain Sarfaraz Ahmed was at his best in the opening seasons of the Pakistan Super League but as soon as he is getting at the end of his career it’s getting tough for him to continue giving those performances again and again and that’s why his stats in last 2 years are also horrible, Sarfaraz in last 2 seasons are as follow;
PSL 2022
INNINGS – 7
RUNS – 152
AVERAGE – 38
STRIKE RATE – 116
PSL 2023
INNINGS – 6
RUNS – 130
AVERAGE – 32
STRIKE RATE – 103
QG DEPENDENCY ON OVERSEAS PLAYERS:
One of the major reasons for Quetta’s downfall for me in the last 4 years is that they were over-dependent on the core of overseas players who used to play with them in the starting seasons of the Pakistan Super League and the likes of Shane Watson, Kevin Peterson, Rille Rossouw, Dwayne Brave, and even Sunil Narine and the batting talent of Pakistan was a good one which was led by Ahmed Shahzad but now there is nothing like that and the overseas players Quetta has picked in these last 4 seasons have not given that control and match-winning knocks for this team and Quetta doesn’t has that venom left in batting after those star players retired from T20 cricket as Quetta never looked for their backup as well.
So, we can conclude that the lack of planning from the Quetta Gladiators is now costing them many tournaments and they are still not serious about this.
SHAHID AFRIDI ABOUT QUETTA:
Pakistan’s highly famous and evergreen all-rounder Shahid Khan Afridi who has also played for this franchise, Afridi on a TV talk show also pointed out the culture of Quetta Gladiators and said: “ I have told Quetta Gladiators that it’s the time to think that you want to make this team to club level or not, if not then be serious about your cricket and pick players on merit and stop preferring players on friendship quota and bring in professionals for the betterment of the team “ which was very much the mirror shown to Quetta Gladiators but they didn’t listen and now they are again paying the price for this friendship culture over talent and deserving players in the playing XI.
- SHAHID AFRIDI HAS FURTHER ADVISED QUETTA OWNER NADEEM OMAR TO REMOVE SARFARAZ AHMED FROM THE CAPTAINCY OF THE FRANCHISE AS WELL SO THAT HE COULD ENJOY HIS CRICKET AS A PLAYER WITHOUT ANY BURDEN.
