Sarfaraz Ahmed stepped down from his role as the captain of PSL franchise Quetta Gladiators after an eight-year stint. He was officially named as captain during the December draft but now has been replaced by a South African star.
Quetta Gladiators announced Rilee Rossouw as the new captain of the side ahead of PSL 9. Saud Shakeel will be the vice-captain for the former PSL champions.
The franchise’s new head coach, Shane Watson was sounded out on his opinion, and that the new backroom staff believed in making a captaincy change. Gladiators had deliberated on whether Saud or Rossouw would get the nod, but Rossouw’s vast PSL experience and pedigree appears to have won over.
While Rossouw has never captained a professional T20 match, no overseas player has scored more runs in the PSL’s history, his aggregate of 1867 coming at a strike rate of 146.54. He spent three highly successful seasons at Quetta Gladiators from 2017-2019, playing two finals and winning the title with the franchise in 2019.
Quetta Gladiators look to become a force in PSL again
Former Pakistan bowling coach Shaun Tait has also been appointed as the side’s fast-bowling coach as Gladiators look to turn around their fortunes: they have gone from being the most consistent PSL side to the most underperforming over the past four years.
Franchise owner Nadeem Omar had spoken openly about the possibility of removing Sarfaraz, saying on the Relukattay podcast it would “be nicer” if Sarfaraz handed the captaincy over on his own.
“Sarfaraz has been off the boil over the last couple of years. There are a lot of reasons for that – the way he was unceremoniously ousted by the PCB didn’t help, especially when he had a few more years. We won’t dump him unceremoniously. We haven’t decided yet, but we’ll give him full honours. Sarfaraz told me he would be happy to step aside if Quetta wants to make a change,” Omar said.
Sarfaraz, 36, was appointed Gladiators captain when the league was inaugurated in 2016 and led his side to the final. Weeks later, he was appointed Pakistan’s white-ball captain and led the national side to the 2017 Champions Trophy title. He led Gladiators to the PSL title in 2019.
But Gladiators’ form has fallen away dramatically since. They have missed qualifying for the playoffs the last four years. With a change in leadership Gladiators will hope to do better this around.
Sherjeel Malik is the editor at FanHaat with a writing experience in multiple sports. He oversees the editorial and content coverage at FanHaat and writes often around combat sports, football and other marquee sports. A professional highlight of his career was when WWE’s Paul Heyman shared one of his articles on his social media.
Apart from writing, editing and watching sports, he likes to indulge in reading fiction, watching war documentaries and is a fan of Liverpool FC
