Mickey Arthur – the newly appointed director of the national team – has not approached former Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed regarding his participation in the ODI World Cup 2023, sources told JEE News.
Several reports on Thursday claimed that Arthur had contacted Sarfraz and discussed the World Cup in India with him.
However, sources close to the former captain confirmed to this correspondent that no such contact took place.
On Wednesday, during a press conference at the National Bank Stadium in Karachi, Sarfaraz answered a question about his desire to play the World Cup in India this year.
“Do you want to play the World Cup this year?” He was asked.
The former captain replied: “As long as I’m playing, there’s always a desire to play.”
He added that I want to play cricket.
Sarfaraz is one of the most successful captains of Pakistan. He was the captain of the national team from 2016 to 2019. Under his captaincy and Arthur’s coaching, Pakistan won their first Champions Trophy in 2017. Also, he made Pakistan record 11 consecutive T20I series wins.
The wicketkeeper-batsman also captained Pakistan in the ICC World Cup 2019. However, he was dropped from the captaincy later that year after Sri Lanka whitewashed Pakistan in a T20I series.
He was then part of the Pakistan Test squad but had to wait four years to return to the playing XI.
Earlier this year, Sarfraz made his Test comeback during the home series against New Zealand. He scored a match-saving century to make a strong comeback.
