LAHORE: Former Test captain and ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2006 and ICC Champions Trophy 2017 winning captain Sarfaraz Ahmed has announced his retirement from international cricket, bringing an end to a distinguished career span around two decades.
Karachi-born wicketkeeper-batter featured in all three formats which include 54 Tests, 117 ODIs and 61 T20Is. He scored 6,164 runs across all three formats, which include six centuries and 35 half-centuries. Behind the stumps, he had 315 catches, while he had 56 stumpings to his name as well.
Sarfaraz captained Pakistan in 100 international matches across formats (50 ODIs, 37 T20Is, and 13 Tests) and led the side to the No.1 ranking in T20I cricket. During his captaincy, Pakistan achieved a world-record streak of 11 consecutive T20I series victories and recorded six clean sweeps, which include against West Indies (2016 and 2018), Sri Lanka (2017), Australia (2018), New Zealand (2018) and Scotland (2018).
Sarfaraz’ leadership era also saw the emergence of several future stars, including Babar Azam, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Hasan Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman and Shadab Khan, whom he backed at the start of their international careers.
Sarfaraz Ahmed led Pakistan to historic triumph in the ICC Champions Trophy, beating India by 180 runs in the final at the Oval in England. With that victory, Sarfaraz became the first Pakistan captain to win the Champions Trophy and the only captain till date to win ICC titles at both junior and senior levels, having earlier led Pakistan to win in the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup in 2006 in Sri Lanka beating India by 38 runs.
In recognition of his services and the Champions Trophy triumph, Sarfaraz Ahmed was awarded the Pride of Performance in 2018, becoming the youngest Pakistan captain to receive the honour.
As per his individual records, Sarfaraz has the Pakistan record of 10 catches in a Test match, which he took against South Africa in Johannesburg 2019. He is till date only Pakistan wicketkeeper-batter to score an ODI century at Lord’s which he scored against England in 2016.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
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