No conspiracy behind not playing Sarfaraz Ahmed in T20Is, says Shahid Afridi

He was in particular referring to former captain and senior batsman Muhammad Yousuf, who had claimed that Sarfaraz was not played because Afridi saw him as a threat to his captaincy in the T20 format.

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Chief selector Haroon Rasheed also said on Wednesday that since Sarfaraz was the future of Pakistan cricket and they were around a dozen T20 matches before the World Cup next year, they were thinking about appointing him captain for a few matches.

Afridi said he had also read the news and called up the chief selector.

“I asked him about his statement about the captaincy and he explained he was referring to making Sarfaraz captain for the Pakistan A team series,” the flamboyant allrounder said.

The wicketkeeper’s exclusion from the T20 series caused a big uproar in Pakistan cricket circles forcing the chairman of the cricket board and chief selector to state they would talk to Afridi and head coach Waqar Younis to find out the reasons for not playing Sarfaraz in the just concludec series.

Afridi said the decision to rest Sarfaraz was part of a plan to test our some of the newer players.

“Sarfaraz is an established performer now who can bat comfortably at any position and he is tried and tested, so we want to try out some of the new players before the World T20 Cup that is all,” he said.

“There is no conspiracy or any such thing behind not playing Sarfaraz as we also felt it would be good to give him rest after a long tour in Sri Lanka,” Afridi said.