Sarfraz appointed Pakistan T20 captain

Lahore, April 5: Wicket-keeper batsman Sarfraz Ahmed has replaced Shahid Afridi as the captain of the Pakistan Twenty20 team.

Sarfraz, who was appointed vice-captain of Pakistan's One-Day Intertiol (ODI) and T20 teams last year, took over the captaincy of the shortest form of the game after Afridi stepped down following a poor campaign at the World Twenty20 in India. "I spoke to Sarfraz this morning and conveyed to him that he was our tural choice for this position. His appointment is open-ended. I wish him good luck in his new role," Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Shaharyar Khan said in a statement on Tuesday.

Ahmad played in all four of Pakistan's group matches at the World Twenty20. The men in green lost three of those matches -- including to arch-rivals India -- to crash out of the tourment. Ahmed has a good strike rate of 120.24 in 21 Twenty20 intertiols, but was under-utilised by the Pakistan team magement at the World T20 as he was used as a lower-order batsman. IANS