Sarfaraz Ahmed reflects on winning Champions Trophy 2017
The Champions Trophy is about to begin and there is a lot of hype surrounding the ICC event which will be taking place in Pakistan and UAE this season. The squads have been decided and the tournament is set to begin on February 19.
The team to watch out for will be Pakistan who will not only be playing at home but will also be looking to defend their title which they won in 2017 after beating arch-rivals India. Speaking of this rivalry, the two teams will be playing in the same group once again and the upcoming rivalry is set to take place on February 23 in Dubai. Though Pakistan has been struggling against India in ICC events in recent times, the 2017 Champions Trophy was one of the most iconic moments for the nation.
The former Pakistan wicketkeeper-batter Sarfaraz Ahmed, who was also the skipper for the team during the tournament, narrated his experiences and how they came back against the Indian team after losing to them in the group stage.
“Afterwards (the India defeat), we had a great team meeting, and some of our senior guys – Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Hafeez – all said their piece. You need those types of characters around you. We changed our mindset from that day. The acrimony was very good for us, we made a couple of changes to the team and it helped our confidence,” Sarfaraz shared with the ICC.
“We played England in the semifinals and our bowlers were just superb, Then, it was India in the final. I was just confident our level was very high and my message to the players ahead of the final was to relax,” Sarfaraz added.
This was not all as Sarfaraz also wrote about the feeling after beating the Indian team in the finals and mentioned it as indescribable. He also talked about how the mindset of the team was while going into the finals of the tournament against the Men in Blue.
“We knew we had beaten some of the best teams, so India was nothing we had not seen, I told the guys to relax, forget the result, and just give 100%,” Sarfaraz wrote.
“The rest is history. When the last wicket went down and we won, it is impossible to describe that feeling in words. When I took the last catch, I was at gully. And I just ran. I saw Shoaib Malik and ran into his arms, I jumped into him and hugged him. The whole team then joined in. It was indescribable,” The 37-year-old concluded.
