Less than eight weeks after calling time on his international playing days, Sarfaraz Ahmed is back in the fold – this time as Pakistan’s head coach. The speed of that turnaround is striking but, in Pakistan cricket, unusual timelines are often the norm.
Earlier this year Sarfaraz was in Zimbabwe with the Pakistan Under-19s. Officially, he travelled as a mentor; in reality he did a bit of everything, nudging field placements here, discussing angles of attack there – the blurry, catch-all role Pakistan back-room staff tend to drift into. It is hardly the sort of high-performance dossier that usually lands you a national head-coach gig, certainly not one Jason Gillespie was expected to vacate. PCB chair Mohsin Naqvi had, after all, banged on about elite coaching résumés when Gillespie was hired. Yet a short interim spell for Aqib Javed since then suggests those prerequisites are, shall we say, negotiable.
Pakistan have history here. Seven years back Misbah-ul-Haq – still fresh from captaining the side – became head coach, chief selector and batting consultant in one swoop, replacing Mickey Arthur. Misbah even sat on the committee that decided Arthur’s fate; no-one seemed too fussed about the conflict of interest. Against that backdrop Sarfaraz’s appointment feels less like a gamble and more like a continuation of a long, slightly chaotic tradition.
So it probably makes sense to judge the idea rather than the optics. There is little chance every faction will ever be satisfied with how Pakistan pick their coaches. That does not automatically make Sarfaraz the wrong call, neither does it doom his tenure before it starts.
As a player he is remembered less for swashbuckling hundreds or acrobatic takes and more for streetwise captaincy. When his batting tailed off late in his career, that nous bought him extra time. Plenty still picture him lifting the 2017 Champions Trophy, and it is worth recalling he remains – along with Imran Khan – the only Pakistan captain to win a 50-over ICC event. His stewardship of the T20 side from 2016 was even more dramatic: inheriting a disjointed group described by then-coach Waqar Younis as tactically rudderless, Sarfaraz moulded them into a team that topped the rankings and reeled off 11 consecutive series wins.
The Test captaincy that followed Misbah’s retirement was less smooth. Results dipped, criticism grew louder, and within a year Pakistan were juggling skippers in every format. Even so, those who shared a dressing-room with him tend to speak of a leader who kept things simple, passed clear messages, and seldom ducked a tricky conversation.
Now he walks into a dressing-room led by Shan Masood, a man he captained not so long ago. The pair are close; Shan values Sarfaraz’s tactical reading, while Sarfaraz appreciates Shan’s calm method. That relationship could help. So too could Sarfaraz’s understanding of how the domestic circuit breathes – an area overseas coaches often struggle to decode quickly.
Of course there are gaps. He has never run a professional coaching programme, never mapped out a year-long fitness plan, never handled the politics of national selection from the other side of the door. He will need a robust support staff, and Pakistan have not always provided one.
Still, the job may suit him. It is part strategist, part older brother, part PR fire-fighter – hats Sarfaraz has worn for years. The expectations will be fierce, the scrutiny relentless, but then so was the captaincy. For a man who has navigated Karachi club rivalries, dressing-room spats and the glare of a Champions Trophy final at The Oval, none of this is entirely new.
Whether it works, only time – and a handful of away tours – will tell. For now, the appointment looks like a calculated roll of the dice rather than a wild punt into darkness. And in Pakistan cricket, that is about as close to steady planning as it gets.
