PSL 2024: Sarfaraz Ahmed Likely To Be Sacked As Quetta Gladiators Captain - Reports

In an attempt to repeat the 2019 Pakistan Super League (PSL) heroics, Quetta Gladiators are willing to replace veteran wicketkeeper-batsman Sarfaraz Ahmed as the captain of the franchise. Gladiators reached the final of the tournament in the first four editions of the PSL but were only able to win the title once.

While the franchises must announce their captains on draft day, Sarfaraz Ahmed was named as the team’s skipper for PSL 2024. However, the right-handed wicket-keeper batsman may be replaced as the captain of the team.

Will Quetta Gladiators replace Sarfaraz Ahmed as the team’s captaincy?

As per a report by ESPNcricinfo, the Quetta Gladiators team management is willing to replace Sarfaraz Ahmed as the captain of the team. If such development takes place, this will be the end of an eight-year-old captaincy stint for Sarfaraz with the franchise.

The team management has already made a huge reshuffle in the team’s coaching staff as head coach Moin Khan has moved to the team’s director position whereas former team member and veteran Australian all-rounder Shane Watson has been named as the new head coach.

While speaking on the Relukattay podcast, Quetta Gladiators owner Nadeem Omar had indicated his double-mindedness towards retaining Sarfaraz Ahmed as the team’s captain. Omar had slammed PCB for the misbehavior they had done with Ahmed.

Omar added that the team management will not forget the only skipper they have known and believed it would be great if the 36-year-old wicket-keeper batsman handed over the captaincy on his own.

Nadeem Omar said, “It is the elephant in the room. Wherever I go, people ask me this. But our franchise is a bit different from the others in the sense that we have a very intimate relationship with these players. I understand cricketers have a shelf life, but I think over Pakistan history, we tend to dump players unceremoniously. Sarfaraz has been off the boil over the last couple of years.

“There are a lot of reasons for that – the way he was unceremoniously ousted by the PCB didn’t help, especially when he had a few more years. We won’t dump him unceremoniously. We haven’t decided yet, but we’ll give him full honours. Sarfaraz told me he would be happy to step aside if Quetta wants to make a change. We have a call with Shane Watson in a couple of days, and then we’ll decide.”

Quetta Gladiators PSL 2024 squad

Rilee Rossouw, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Jason Roy and Wanindu Hasaranga, Sarfaraz Ahmed (captain), Abrar Ahmed and Mohammad Hasnain, Will Smeed, Saud Shakeel, Sajjad Ali Jnr, Usman Qadir, Adil Naz, Khawaja Nafay, Akeal Hosein, Sohail Khan

Sarfaraz Ahmed’s return to the Pakistan cricket team

Sarfaraz Ahmed has been included in Pakistan’s Test squad for the tour of Australia but was not able to do much in the first Test played at Perth and scored seven runs from both innings. The fans had slammed PCB for not including Sarfaraz in the 2023 ODI World Cup squad and now with Babar Azam stepping down from the captaincy in all three formats, there are chances that Ahmed may also be included in the 50-over format as well.