Sarfaraz Ahmed nearly makes Pakistan lose England T20I by missing easy stumping: Watch

Former Pakistan cricket captain Sarfaraz Ahmed, who warmed the bench for nearly the entire England tour, was finally included in the playing XI in the third T20I at the Old Trafford in place of Mohammad Rizwan. The right-handed keeper-batsman, who was also a part of Pakistan's Test squad, couldn't break into the playing XI as the Azhar Ali-led team chose to stick with Mohammad Rizwan. A lot was expected from Sarfaraz Ahmed, who was making a comeback after being dropped due to Pakistan's poor outing at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019. But the 33-year-old couldn't really make the most of the opportunity provided to him.

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Sarfaraz Ahmed misses easy stumping opportunity

In the third T20I, England won the toss and invited Pakistan to bat first. The visitors posted a huge total of 190 courtesy a brilliant performance from their top order, which is why Sarfaraz didn't get a chance to bat. The Pakistan veteran had a chance to redeem himself by performing well with the gloves but failed to stump the in-form batsman Moeen Ali, who then went on to smash a blistering fifty and threatened to take the game away from Pakistan.

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It all happened on the fourth ball of the 11th over when Moeen Ali stepped out of the crease to hit Imad Wasim for a maximum but he failed to connect with the ball, which resulted in a miss. Sarfaraz Ahmed caught the ball but took a lot of time to disturb the woodwork, giving a lifeline to the Englishman. Moeen Ali made the most of the opportunity as he scored 61 off 33 balls. However, Pakistan kept their nerve and emerged victorious by 5 runs courtesy some impressive bowling from Shaheen Afridi and Wahab Riaz.

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Before featuring in the third T20I against England, Sarfaraz Ahmed last played for Pakistan in the 2019 ICC World Cup where they failed to qualify for the knockouts. Subsequently, Sarfaraz Ahmed was also stripped off the captaincy with Azhar Ali being named captain of the Pakistan team in the longest form of the game while Babar Azam was handed the reins of the limited-formats teams. Sarfaraz Ahmed, who is currently playing the role of a backup wicketkeeper-batsman for Pakistan, was also handed a central contract for the 2020-21 season by the PCB despite not playing for Pakistan a long time.

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IMAGE COURTESY: ICC TWITTER HANDLE