Pakistan announce Sarfraz Ahmed as Test captain

Karachi: Sarfraz Ahmed has been rewarded the Pakistan's Test Captaincy, a fortnight after he led the national team to an elusive Champions Trophy title in England.

Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Shaharyar Khan named Sarfraz Test captain at a ceremony honouring the winning team hosted by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Islamabad.

The position of Pakistan Test captain became vacant after Misbah-ul-Haq bid adieu to the game after concluding the three-match Test series earlier against West Indies this year. Ahmed recently led Pakistan to Champions Trophy 2017 triumph after his side defeated Virat Kohli-led Indian team in the final.

Sarfraz has so far played 36 Test matches for Pakistan and has notched up a total of 2089 runs at an average of 40.96 including three hundreds and 13 half-centuries.

Sarfraz is only the third Pakistan captain to have won a major ICC trophy. Imran Khan led his side to World Cup triumph in 1992 while under Younis Khan, they lifted the World T20 in 2009 edition.

Pakistan Champions Trophy triumph has helped them move up in the World rankings as they moved to sixth spot from No 8 and were under a threat of losing out on direct qualification to ICC World Cup 2019.