On the third day of the first Test being played between Pakistan and New Zealand, such an incident happened, due to which the fans got confused. This incident is being mentioned a lot on social media.
In fact, when the third day of the Test started, Pakistan’s captain Babar Azam did not take the field. According to media reports, he is battling viral flu. In his place, Mohammad Rizwan was sent on the field as a substitute. He was not included in the team for this test.
Ever since Rizwan landed on the field, it seemed that he was captaining. He was seen giving directions to the players. Also seen fielding. However, wicketkeeping was being done by Sarfaraz Ahmed.
According to Law 24.1.2 of cricket, substitute players can give directions to the players on the field, but cannot make any decisions on the field and cannot bowl like the captain. Only the captain is allowed to take rules like DRS. In such a situation, confusion arose regarding the captain in the 53rd over of New Zealand’s innings.
Actually, Pakistan appealed for LBW against Devon Conway in this over. Onfield umpire Aleem Dar gave notout on this. After this, Rizwan decided to take a review after talking to the rest of the players including wicketkeeper Sarfaraz.
Both Rizwan and Sarfaraz walked towards the umpire and simultaneously made the DRS T-sign.This created confusion as to who was the stand-in captain in place of Babar. However, the umpire probably took a review considering Sarfaraz’s appeal and Conway was declared out in the review.
Later the Pakistan Cricket Board also clarified and told who was playing the role of caretaker captain in place of Babar. According to Pakistan Cricket, Sarfaraz was the stand-in captain in place of Babar. In such a situation, now Rizwan’s place seems to be in danger.
Pakistan’s first innings ended on 438 runs. Captain Babar Azam scored 161 runs and Agha Salman scored 103 runs. After these two, Sarfaraz was the highest run scorer. Sarfaraz scored 86 runs. He returned to the Test team after almost four years. Sarfaraz was preferred as a wicket-keeper batsman in place of Rizwan.
In such a situation, Sarfaraz has strengthened his place in the Test team by performing with the bat. New Zealand have scored more than 350 runs for four wickets till the time of writing the news in their first innings.