Start of an era: Azhar says he wants improved team spirit in first press conference as captain

New skipper talks of players aiming for a collective goal rather than individual milestones

KARACHI: From a leg-spinner to a resolute batsman, from a ‘Test specialist’ and a one-day reject to captain of the ODI side; Azhar Ali’s career has seen some quite drastic transformations and the most recent one sees him replace Misbahul Haq at the helm in ODIs despite being out of the side for the past two years, with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) finally making the expected announcement.

Often criticised for having a limited number of shots in his repertoire and scoring slowly, the 30-year-old has made up for it with temperament and grit to reasonable success in the Test arena.

PCB Chairman Shaharyar Khan said that while a number of names were suggested for the captaincy, Azhar was the one who received the highest number of recommendations and the board decided to appoint him because of his reputation.

“Azhar has been made the one-day captain because of his character, leadership, team spirit and conduct over the years,” said Shaharyar in a press conference. “He hasn’t been in the ODI side for two years but he did well as a batsman and captain in the Pentangular Cup, which served as a sort of trial period for us.”

Azhar will also take up the vice-captain’s mantle in the Test side, with wicketkeeper-batsman Sarfraz Ahmed doing so in the other two formats.

Shaharyar further revealed that Sarfraz was being considered as captain but was not appointed after weighing the pros against the cons. “We looked at our cricket culture and there were pros and cons associated with Sarfraz,” said the chairman. “We cannot appoint a young captain like Steve Smith or Graeme Smith. However, Sarfraz has spirit and he has shown how to perform in tough conditions.”

The official added that the board wants young players to build a team for the future rather than go for the safer short-term option of sticking with tried and tested players.

 

The new captain speaks

Azhar averages 41-plus in both Tests and ODIs — 41.31 in Test and 41.09 in ODIs to be precise, at a strike rate of 39.56 and 64.84 respectively. It is the strike-rate that Azhar needs to improve on as ODI cricket continues to change.

The right-handed batsman expressed his gratitude to the board for giving him this opportunity. “I’m thankful to the PCB for entrusting Pakistan’s ODI leadership to me,” said the 30-year-old.  “It’s a challenge which I’ll take hands-on to prove myself.”

The newly-appointed skipper knows he has to make up for lost time and felt he is now much more adept at scoring quickly. “I haven’t played one-day cricket for the last two years but I’ve worked hard on my batting in domestic cricket and there is improvement as far as the strike-rate is concerned,” he said, before adding that he does not worry about the potential criticism that Pakistan’s captains invariably have to face. “Being part of the Test side for five years, I’ve become used to the criticism which comes along the way.”

In the 45-minute long press conference, Azhar also touched on the need for players to put the team above individual goals. “We need to replace the world ‘I’ with ‘we’, to think and fight as a group, as a team,” he said. “If we can bring in this mentality, then there is no reason why the Pakistan team cannot improve.”

Azhar also thanked Misbah for leading the side well over the years and said that the new players will try to fill the void left by Misbah.

 

Available resources not strong enough: Haroon

New chief selector Haroon Rasheed — who will be helped by Saleem Jaffar, Kabir Khan and Azhar Khan — said people need to understand that the available resources are not strong enough to compete with the best teams.

“The team needs long-term planning to put Pakistan on the right track because nobody is realising that development has been affected with no cricket at home,” said Rasheed. “Everyone expects the team to beat the top sides of the world but the ground reality is that we don’t have the resources.”

 

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