.jpg)
1. Misbah’s batting style negatively impacts the team- Answer: Occasionally his batting does invoke pressure on the rest of the team, but most of the times it is a team's own failure that is its undoing. Misbah cannot help it if our openers Strike Rate is under 70 and averages under 30 (they come in before him!). Misbah cannot help it if Hafeez has forgotten how to bat. Misbah cannot help it if Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq are not living up to their potential in Test matches.
2. Misbah doesn’t let young players come in the team. Answer: Completely false. Umar Amin, Harris Sohail, Khurram Manzoor, Anwar Ali, Ahmad Shehzad and Umer Akmal have ALL been recent inclusions in squad. But of course Misbah caused Umer Akmal’s epileptic seizure which made him not available for Zimbabwe tour.
3. Misbah’s strike rate is too slow. Answer: Guess what. If you’re 30-3 or 55-2 after 15 overs (Our top order never gets runs at express speed) I wouldn’t mind if we have someone with strike rate of 50-60 initially to steer the innings till the 40th over so that we can survive the 50 overs! Our batting order FINISHES at no. 7( and our no. 7’s are usually Shahid Afridi’s or some pseudo batsman). This isn’t 1999 where we had so many all-rounders like Azhar Mahmood, Abdur Razzaq or Wasim Akram who filled our batting order till No. 9. Good luck relying on Saeed Ajmal at no. 8 to score runs then!
4. This isn’t the first time in history that cricket has had a captain who leads the team well but the rest of the team doesn’t follow suit. Andy Flower and Richard Hadlee never became less of captains/leaders JUST because the rest of the team didn’t do so well. Stephen Fleming (who didn’t even average as well as Misbah and was not technically gifted) did not become less of a captain just because New Zealand lost a lot. In fact, he was praised for his leadership qualities notwithstanding the poor team he led. JUST accept the fact that for now our team isn’t what it was in the 90s. Stop living in the past. We have to slowly rebuild and accept our mistakes. To blame it on one person who’s been doing his job, leading without any drama, with pure calmness and without any fuss is CRIMINAL.
Article by Ali Chughtai
Ali is the freelance writer and Misbah die hard fan.
