Pakistani Cricket Players: Sarfraz Ahmed

Sarfraz Ahmed Biography

Source link(google,com.pk)
Sarfraz Ahmed was born in May 22, 1987. He is a fine Pakistani cricketer who lead Pakistan to victory at the Under 19 World Cup in 2006. He is a wicket-keeper and a right-handed batsman. He had played only 5 games for the Pakistan Under 19 cricket team before being chosen as captain for the Under 19 Cricket World Cup. He also plays first class cricket for Karachi. Sarfraz Ahmed was called up by Pakistan on replacement of Kamran Akmal in the one-day series between India and Pakistan in November 2007.

He made his ODI debut in the final match of the series, on 18 November 2007. He was good behind the stupms with his keeping skills but didn't get an opportunity to bat as Pakistan had won the match before he was required to bat. In 2008, Sarfraz was preferred ahead of Kamran Akmal for the Asia Cup. Throughout the Asia Cup he overwhelmed with his keeping skills but didn't get a chance to show his batting skills. He made his test match debut in Hobart on 14 January 2010 against Australia. He only played one test and fifteen ODI’s for Pakistan.
Sarfraz Ahmed is a wicketkeeper and a right handed batsman with the Pakistan cricket team. He has also played for the Karachi Dolphins, Pakistan A, Karachi Harbour, Pakistan International Airlines, Sind and the Pakistan Under-19 cricket teams.

Sarfraz Ahmed started playing first class cricket in 2006. After captaining the Pakistan under 19 team, scoring consecutive fifties in his 3rd and 4th matches and leading the team to win the Under 19 World Cup, he made his debut in International cricket in a One day International cricket match against India at Jaipur in 2007. He kept the wickets and caught Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh behind the wickets. Ahmed was not required to bat the innings as Pakistan won the match by 31 runs. Ahmed has yet to play an International test match or a Twenty20 International match but is considered as strong competition to the existing Pakistan wicketkeeper, Kamran Akmal.

Sarfaraz first came into prominence when he led the side to victory at the Under-19 World Cup in 2006, where they beat arch-rivals India. A year later, he made his One-Day International (ODI) debut at Jaipur against India. Since then, he has been in and out of the side with Pakistan also trying out Zulkarnain Haider, Adnan Akmal and Umar Akmal among others. However, in 2010, he was called up for the third Test at Hoboart against Australia after a horror show by Kamran Akmal at Sydney.

Pakistan continue to search for a wicketkeeper who can bat. While Sarfaraz has a decent record with the bat in domestic cricket, he is yet to prove his credentials at the highest level. He still competes with the Akmal brothers for the gloves across formats

Zulqarnain Haider and Sarfraz Ahmed are the other two guys, who are performing well in domestic cricket. Zulqarnain, who has 44 first-class matches in his kitty at such a young age, has been with the national team for the last couple of years. The lanky stumper, who could not demonstrate his true batting skills in the practice one-dayer against touring South Africans at Bagh-e-Jinnah, has toured South Africa last year under Inzamam-ul-Haq and played the only Twenty20 International there.

In 2004, he was part of the 16-member national team for the two-Test home series against Sri Lanka. At one stage, he was on the verge of making his Test debut but was suddenly overlooked due to unknown reasons. Zulqarnain, who has struck two centuries and 10 fifties in first-class career so far, has displayed his batting potential on a number of occasions. He was top scorer and best wicket-keeper in the 2004 U-19 World Cup in Bangladesh where Pakistan won the title.

Sarfraz Ahmed, another U-19 World Cup winning skipper in 2006, is a right-handed wicket-keeper/batsman. He has already shown his worth as a middle-order batsman, scoring six half-centuries in his 13 first-class matches. It is for sure that the PCB will have to take this decision sooner or later to meet the challenges of modern day cricket.