Pakistan vs Australia 2018: Sarfraz Ahmed Happy to Respond to Criticism After Brilliant Knock

Pakistan skipper Sarfraz Ahmed said that he was happy after a brilliant knock of 94 runs on Tuesday on the first day of the second Test match against Australia. Sarfraz Ahmed added 147 runs with his partner Fakhar Zaman who also 94 runs in the first essay. However, their massive partnership helped Pakistan to post 282 runs in the first innings on the game.

The 31-year-old, Pakistan skipper had only scored 15 runs in the first innings of the first Test match and had shown poor performance behind the stumps. Pakistan couldn’t manage to win the first Test despite holding a strong position.

Sarfraz is happy to let his bat do the talking.

“Yeah the pressure was there, definitely,” said Sarfraz Ahmed in the post-match press conference, who had made just 74 runs in his six previous Test innings.

“A lot of it. You know it’s coming from all corners. Somebody is saying leave Test cricket, somebody is saying leave captaincy, some are saying leave him out of the team. When all this happens and you score runs then it’s a bit of relief and then to do it in a situation where you were 57/5 and in a really bad shape,” he added.

Moreover, he also said that Pakistan has come up with good performances and he is happy with it. They even managed to pick up the wicket of Usman Khawaja early on in the innings.

“It’s good that we scored 282 and then got two wickets, including that of Usman Khawaja because he can play long innings, so I think it has become even for both the teams now,” Sarfraz Ahmed said.

Furthermore, Sarfraz Ahmed also praised Fakhar Zaman who is playing his first Test match and had contributed much-needed 94 runs with his bat.

“Fakhar played a brilliant knock and I got very good confidence from him because I like that the other batsmen rotate the strike and he did that and played brilliantly in his first match. He deserved credit for doing so well,” Sarfraz concluded.

Pakistan holds the advantage as Australia is currently reeling at 91-6 in their first innings. Thus, Australia trails by 191 runs and have four wickets in hand.