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Sarfraz Ahmed or Mohammad Hafeez – Who do you support?
Mohammad Hafeez and Sarfaraz Ahmed’s Twitter moment had let their fans decide who was the better captain. Take a look as we dig out some stats between the two former captains of Pakistan.
Mohammad Hafeez
| Mohammad Hafeez – Overall record | |||||||
| # | Format | Matches | Win | Loss | Tie/Draw | NR | Win% |
| 1 | Test | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| 2 | One Day Internationals | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 50.00 |
| 3 | Twenty20 Internationals | 29 | 17 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 60.34 |
In Tests
Mohammad Hafeez has only led Pakistan once in Test cricket. It was against Sri Lanka in 2012 in the first Test. It was not very pleasing for Hafeez as Pakistan lost the match. He managed only 20 and 4 in batting and 3-55 in first innings. Sri Lanka had won the match by 209 runs.
In ODIs
Again, Mohammad Hafeez did not lead Pakistan much in ODIs. Only twice in his entire career, he led Pakistan. It was in 2017 tour of Australia when regular captain Azhar Ali was ruled out due to injury.
It was a fairy tale start for Hafeez. In the second ODI against Australia, Mohammad Hafeez led Pakistan to their first win over Australia in Australia in 12 years. He scored a captain’s knock of 72 as Pakistan beat Australia by six wickets.
He led Pakistan again in the third ODI as well, but he scored only four runs in Pakistan’s lost to Australia by seven wickets. Hafeez never leads Pakistan ever again.
In T20I
Hafeez is the only Pakistan captain to win a T20I match against India
Before Sarfaraz Ahmed became the T20I captain, Mohammad Hafeez was the most successful captain for Pakistan in T20Is. In two years from 2012 and 2014, he led Pakistan to 17 wins out of 29 matches and lost only 11.
Hafeez has scored 753 runs as captain at an average of 28.96 as compared to a career average of 27.96 but his strike-rate of 115 was low as compared to career strike-rate 121. He scored five fifties out of 14 as captain. 20 out of 54 wickets came as a captain. However, he averaged 27 as compared to non-captain of 22.
Tournament record:
ICC World T20 2012 – Semi-finals (3rd place)
ICC World T20 2014 – Group stage (5th place)
Achievements:
1. Only Pakistan captain to beat India in a Twent20 International match.
Sarfaraz Ahmed
| Sarfaraz Ahmed – Overall record | |||||||
| # | Format | Matches | Win | Loss | Tie/Draw | NR | Win% |
| 1 | Test | 13 | 4 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 61.53 |
| 2 | One Day Internationals | 50 | 28 | 20 | 0 | 2 | 58.33 |
| 3 | Twenty20 Internationals | 37 | 29 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 78.37 |
In T20Is
Sarfaraz Ahmed has the best record for any Pakistan captain in Twenty20 Internationals. He took over the leadership role from Shahid Afridi after Pakistan’s horrible run in 2016 World Twenty20 in India. He started off winning from 2016 to the ned of 2018, winning nine consecutive T20I series which became a Pakistan record.
Because of this, Sarfaraz led Pakistan from 7th Rank in T20Is post-2016 World T20 to number 1 rank in the world. It was the first time Pakistan reached the highest rank in twenty20 Championship.
Pakistan became the number 1 side for the first time in T20 after defeating New Zealand 2-1
2019 is where the downfall began, as their first series loss in three years against South Africa saw Pakistan’s poor run. His final series was against Sri Lanka, where the second-string Sri Lankan team whitewashed Pakistan in the most embarrassing way. Sarfaraz was no longer seen since then.
Sarfaraz as captain holds the best winning percentage for Pakistan with 78.37 per cent of win.
As a captain in batting, Sarfaraz scored 521 runs. It is about 64 per cent of his runs came in his leadership in T20I career. Though his averages as captain drops to 0.58 comparing to his career average of 28. He even scored his career-best of 89 not out in his leadership.
In ODIs
Sarfraz Ahmed’s finest hour came in the Champions Trophy, where Pakistan defeated India by a record margin of 180 runs
Perhaps the most defining moment came when he led the number 9 ranked ODI side to Champions Trophy victory in 2017. This also resulted in Pakistan, the lowest-ranked team in the tournament that barely qualified for the event, came back to number 6th rank.
Other than that, Sarfaraz had an average outing as captain of Pakistan in ODI leadership. He led Pakistan to 50 ODI matches, having a positive win-loss ratio of 1.4 under his leadership. Pakistan won 28 games and lost 20 of them.
His personal record reads as 804 runs he scored at an average of 32.16 as compared to his career average of 33. He did not score a single hundred, only five fifties.
In Test
Sarfaraz Ahmed succeed in Pakistan’s Test captain after the retirement of Misbah ul-Haq in 2017. However, his record was poor as captain. Pakistan never lost in UAE ever since it became their adoptive home. But Sarfaraz lost two series there, against Sri Lanka in 2017 (whitewashed 2-0) and against New Zealand (lost 2-1). His final captaincy role was against South Africa, where Pakistan were whitewashed.
Sarfaraz’s captaincy record in Test reads as 13 matches, winning only 4 and lost 8.
As a batsman under his own captaincy, Sarfaraz Ahmed managed 568 runs at an average of 25. He scored five fifties. Clearly he was not made for Test captaincy.
Tournament record:
ICC Champions Trophy 2017: Champions
ICC Cricket World Cup 2019: Group stage (5th place)
Achievements:
1. Only Pakistan captain to beat South Africa in two successive ICC ODI events
2. First Pakistan captain to win Champions Trophy title
3. First Pakistan captain to lead Pakistan to top of ICC Twenty20 rankings
4. Holds the record for highest individual score as captain of Pakistan T20I
Who is better?
Clearly, the stats support Sarfaraz Ahmed as much better captain for Pakistan than Mohammad Hafeez. Though fair enough, Hafeez has led Pakistan to three international matches across both Tests and ODIs. But in terms of Twenty20 record, Sarfaraz Ahmed is miles ahead.
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