After a few years of back and forth experimentation between the three Akmal brothers and Sarfraz Ahmed, I feel Sarfraz has finally proved that he is the best among the current lot.

As a wicketkeeper I rate him higher than Adnan and Umar Akmal, with room to improve of course. But definitely, the best I have seen him keep was at Dubai last week against the Aussies. It was excellent keeping considering the pitch and how the Pakistani spinners were turning the ball square. Two takes off the spinners especially impressed me which were taken by him on the leg side after the ball had pitched well outside the off stump. I have been a wicketkeeper and I know it would have been difficult to take.

Most people don’t notice how difficult a job it is to keep wickets in such conditions. Let me tell you of the Test Match at DHA ground Karachi against Zimbabwe. I gave away something like 12 byes in the fourth innings out of a total score of under 140. But Javed Miandad told me after the game that he had seen Wasim Bari keep wickets and that I had kept better than him on a pitch of this sort. I was stunned as I thought I had kept badly. But his view was that to give only 12 byes on that kind of pitch against the Pakistani bowlers was an achievement.

It was the same with Sarfraz in Dubai where he gave only 4 byes out of 217 runs on the fifth day! It, therefore, surprised me when I heard a commentator use the word ‘sloppy’ or ‘bad’ or something like that to describe his overall wicketkeeping when he missed a stumping chance. Now I have not heard anything like that from the same critics about other wicketkeepers when they have missed sitters, or when Australia’s Brad Haddin missed one during the Dubai Test. You don’t use ‘harsh’ words like that about a player when describing an international match, especially when only one stumping chance has been missed in the entire innings.

On another occasion, when I thought Sarfraz’s stumping of Johnson was really sharp,someone in the TV studio made it a point to say he had reacted slowly. I have at times, on a pitch like that, concentrated on collecting the ball rather than rushing to dislodge the bail. I believe Sarfraz acted intelligently and showed maturity in timing the stumping. Again these ‘negative’ comments come from the same player goes out to show he know little or nothing about wicketkeeping.

I have also observed that the rise of Sarfraz in the Pakistan team has not pleased those who had written him off or criticised him in his early days with the national team. It is, indeed, Sarfraz’s stellar performance in Sri Lanka and now against the Aussies that has compelled these critics to praise him but they make it clear with their gestures that they are not liking it.

Let me tell you that I have always been impressed by Sarfraz’s batting abilities, even though Kamran was a superior batsman when he took over from me. But he failed in the ODIs at South Africa some two years ago and Sarfraz got the chance to make his mark in the lone Test he played. Then, too, Sarfraz was always discouraged, deliberately, to make him shaky which often resulted in him batting with extra caution. You don’t get runs in the lower order if you bat in a pre-occupied state of mind.

On other occasions, those in the management opposed his selection and made him feel unwanted. I know this because I have been very close to such matters.

I know from those travelling with the team in Australia in 2009 — when Kamran had to be dropped for the last Test because of poor keeping in the second Test — that Sarfraz was under a lot of pressure from certain quarters in the team.

And again, on a recent tour, when he was selected as a back-up wicketkeeper, his visa was delayed while a fellow keeper kept on telling him that he will be replacing Sarfraz on the tour. Sarfraz eventually went on the tour, though he was dropped soon afterwards without having been provided the right opportunities.

In the Asia Cup final, where his 50 proved to be the match winning effort, Sarfraz was dubbed as ‘not good enough a batsman to hold a place in the side.’ Upon his return from the tour, he was shocked as he was not awarded a central contract by the PCB.

It is therefore to the credit of Sarfraz that he has not given up hope or effort in face all such biases and continues to shine with both the gloves and the bat. Pakistan would not have won the Test match had it not been for his blazing century at Dubai. And though Younis Khan was deservedly the man of the match, Sarfraz for me was the next in line because he kept wickets very well on a pitch that was offering unpredictable bounce.

What Waqar Younis and Moin Khan have to do now is give him confidence by promising him a long stint with the team if he continues to perform thi way. Let me tell you that he is not a natural opener and yet has given his best when handed the task. Those who can’t accept him will keep saying that he will likely fail in Australia on the bouncy pitches there. But in view of his hard work and his sincerity to Pakistan, I can confidently say that he will prove his critics wrong.

The writer is a former Pakistan captain

Published in Dawn, October 30th , 2014