Babar Azam as captain versus Misbah as head coach: who would you like to see return?

Rana

Hall of Famer
Joined
Jan 18, 2006
Runs
70,460
If you had to choose one of these two options as a Pakistan cricket fan, which one would you choose?

Personally, I wouldn’t want either, of course. But if I were left with no choice but to pick one distressing era, I would rather go with Misbah ul Haq as head coach. That’s how traumatised I feel at the thought of Babar Azam returning as captain of the Pakistan cricket team, at least in white-ball cricket. Two of the darkest, most depressing eras of Pakistan cricket were under their reigns (including Misbah ul Haq as the ODI captain).
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Uhh? Babar ig?

Misbah as coach means having accumulators at the top with one hit wonders at the bottom like khusdil Shah lol.

Babar took us to no 1 against c string sides whereas with misbah we wouldn't be able to even do that.

Honestly idk

One captain thought the idea of Abdullah, Imam, rizwan, Agha, Shadab, and nawaz batting around him would be a great idea,

The other thought an opening pair of shehzad, Jamshed, shafiq and umar akmal over a specialist keeper like sarfi would be a great idea..

Neither of these 2 are great options.
 
I am not in favor of Babar being captain again but I would rather accept him as a captain than Misbah's coaching. Pakistan can't afford another disastrous tenure of his coaching.
 
Last edited:
Pick one, as if a gun is pointed at your head and you have to pick the lesser of the evils.
I will take the gun and shoot both of them. Jk. If i had to pick the lesser evil, it would be Babar.
 
Whichever one will force Amir and Imad to run away again.
 
I'm going to say Babar as captain.

What you have to remember is Babar as captain was mentored by Misbah, who himself set this precedent of cliques, stat padding and batting selfishly. A prominent example of the latter is when he came out to bat in Mohali during a Semi-Final of a WC.

I don't rate Sarfraz highly but he's a case in point of what you can achieve when you show complete disregard to the Misbah template. His leadership is one of the reasons why Pakistan won the CT in 2017 and why they almost made it to the Semis of the 2019 WC, which they would've done had the game against SL wasn't rained off.

Misbah will continue to destroy Pakistan cricket but with a decent coach, there's still chance (albeit very unlikely) that Babar can learn from him and change for the greater good of Pakistan cricket.

The biggest enemy of Pakistan cricket since 2011 has always been Misbah. Anyone who supports him is a sworn enemy of Pakistan cricket.
 
If you had to choose one of these two options as a Pakistan cricket fan, which one would you choose?

Personally, I wouldn’t want either, of course. But if I were left with no choice but to pick one distressing era, I would rather go with Misbah ul Haq as head coach. That’s how traumatised I feel at the thought of Babar Azam returning as captain of the Pakistan cricket team, at least in white-ball cricket. Two of the darkest, most depressing eras of Pakistan cricket were under their reigns (including Misbah ul Haq as the ODI captain).
Stay away from Misbah at any cost. He took away the flair of Pakistan team and converted it into a soulless dull team that we see today.
 
I'm going to say Babar as captain.

What you have to remember is Babar as captain was mentored by Misbah, who himself set this precedent of cliques, stat padding and batting selfishly. A prominent example of the latter is when he came out to bat in Mohali during a Semi-Final of a WC.

I don't rate Sarfraz highly but he's a case in point of what you can achieve when you show complete disregard to the Misbah template. His leadership is one of the reasons why Pakistan won the CT in 2017 and why they almost made it to the Semis of the 2019 WC, which they would've done had the game against SL wasn't rained off.

Misbah will continue to destroy Pakistan cricket but with a decent coach, there's still chance (albeit very unlikely) that Babar can learn from him and change for the greater good of Pakistan cricket.

The biggest enemy of Pakistan cricket since 2011 has always been Misbah. Anyone who supports him is a sworn enemy of Pakistan cricket.
If misbah was the coach in 2017, then this would be our team for ct 2017

1) Azhar Ali( C)
2) Ahmed shehzad
3) Asad Shafiq
4) Babar Azam/Fakhar Zaman( Yes he'd make fakhar bat here lol)
5) Rizwan (wk)
6) Iftikhar Ahmed
7) Khusdil Shah
8) Faheem Ashraf
9) Yasir Shah
10) Muhammad Husnain
11) Rahat Ali

Azhar Ali would be his deputy with shehzad and shafiq being his favourites.

No 4 would either be Bobby or Fakhar out of position obviously with rizwan as his go to keeper, if shehzad fails, then rizwan would be sent to opening so that asif Ali can come in play at no 7, While chacha moves to no 5 and khusdil to no 6.

Faheem would be his go to guy from the IU campaign and he'd justify husnain and rahat Ali for his psl 2017 form and finally yasir Shah would be his go to spinner.

Oh and fakhar would 100% bat at no 4, or he'd be out of the team altogether.
 
I'm going to say Babar as captain.

What you have to remember is Babar as captain was mentored by Misbah, who himself set this precedent of cliques, stat padding and batting selfishly. A prominent example of the latter is when he came out to bat in Mohali during a Semi-Final of a WC.

I don't rate Sarfraz highly but he's a case in point of what you can achieve when you show complete disregard to the Misbah template. His leadership is one of the reasons why Pakistan won the CT in 2017 and why they almost made it to the Semis of the 2019 WC, which they would've done had the game against SL wasn't rained off.

Misbah will continue to destroy Pakistan cricket but with a decent coach, there's still chance (albeit very unlikely) that Babar can learn from him and change for the greater good of Pakistan cricket.

The biggest enemy of Pakistan cricket since 2011 has always been Misbah. Anyone who supports him is a sworn enemy of Pakistan cricket.
Not really no, Bobby didn't listen to mickey, Babar and misbah are of the same mould.

Although babar is a superior bat .
 
Would take Babar.

At least he can be sacked again, if required.

I had high regard for Misbah the batsmen and how he effectively handled the team after Amir-Asif fiasco.

But during his later years, he was out of his depth yet he continued to bat till 40 and held the team back.

Then he took a coaching job which he had no qualifications for and tried to impose himself on PCB.

He may be street smart but he doesn't realize how out of depth he is as a coach of Pakistan and how his redundant thinking has held back the team and prevented its growth.
 
I would want neither one of them to be back but If I had to then I will bring back Babar. Misbah's coaching tenure was not worth remembering at all
 
With Misbah this is the team we would have lol

1) Babar azam
2) Rizwan
3) Shan Masood
4) Hasebullah
5) Chacha
6) Shadab
7) Nawaz
8) Jamal
9) Shaheen
10) Naseem
11) Rauf
 
Babar was previously paired with dud coaches. Saqlain was too busy sooth saying and Mickey new that there was no point getting tough as he'd be on his way out as soon as Sethi left. If you had Babar with a top class international coach who had power and responsibility, then his captaincy may have improved.

Misbah is someone I respected during his playing days, but his stints as a coach or whatever his position was had some crazy and questionable decisions. He was answerable to nobody and made some massive errors in selection/team composition that defied logic.

I would take babar back as captain any day of the week because despite being poor he has redeemable qualities and could be built on to improve. Plus he makes all 3 formats on merit.

Misbah had no redeemable qualities, he snaked Mikey then ruined the team. I have also said he is suited to a PCB position but should be nowhere near the international teams in a coaching capacity.
 
Misbah, he knows how to win Tests in asian conditions. Pakistan have a shambolic home record. They should have been in the WTC final during the last tournament.
 
Both should be back. We were deprived of this duo by Ramiz Raja who just wanted to make changes for the sake of it to show his efficiency. Still Babar did well but if he had Misbah's guidance through 3 World Cups and a test home season, results could've been different
 
If you had to choose one of these two options as a Pakistan cricket fan, which one would you choose?

Personally, I wouldn’t want either, of course. But if I were left with no choice but to pick one distressing era, I would rather go with Misbah ul Haq as head coach. That’s how traumatised I feel at the thought of Babar Azam returning as captain of the Pakistan cricket team, at least in white-ball cricket. Two of the darkest, most depressing eras of Pakistan cricket were under their reigns (including Misbah ul Haq as the ODI captain).
Wouldn't prefer any of them, but if still need to select would go for Babar as a captain. Misbah's return would result into ruining careers of some more batsmans who are giving a bit of hope right now like Saim, Abdullah etc.
 
Not really no, Bobby didn't listen to mickey, Babar and misbah are of the same mould.

Although babar is a superior bat .

I don’t disagree but if you had to decide between the two, Babar captaining the side is the lesser of the two evils.
 
Both should be back. We were deprived of this duo by Ramiz Raja who just wanted to make changes for the sake of it to show his efficiency. Still Babar did well but if he had Misbah's guidance through 3 World Cups and a test home season, results could've been different

Bro do you actually about the best interests of Pakistan cricket? Or do you just want to see your favourites feature in these roles? (even though they’re clearly not fit to captain nor manage the side).
 
Babar. Just pair him with a powerful tactically aware coach and not a cheerleader. His man management is good, but he needs help in selections and tactics. Misbah would be okay as someone looking after the domestic structure.
 
Has to be Babar the captain, Misbah with his flawed theories and British empire approach knew everything but coaching
 
Comparing Babar's captaincy with Misbah's coaching is like a comparison between lamborgini and Suzuki mehran. No chance Misbah will be having any popularity here.
 
The amount of hatred that Misbah gets from Pakistani fans, not even those notorious match fixers, drug cheat, ball tamperers, pitch tamperers, etc that have represented Pakistan has received. Why? Just because you dislike the way he approached the game? He retired years ago. He is not a criminal who deserves to be hated all his life.
 
The amount of hatred that Misbah gets from Pakistani fans, not even those notorious match fixers, drug cheat, ball tamperers, pitch tamperers, etc that have represented Pakistan has received. Why? Just because you dislike the way he approached the game? He retired years ago. He is not a criminal who deserves to be hated all his life.
Misbah would walk into the current playing 11 batting left handed. The current team is below average, just compare their fitness levels with Misbah when he was 40 plus years old.

Babar and his so called cult have turned Pak cricket into some private company.
 
The amount of hatred that Misbah gets from Pakistani fans, not even those notorious match fixers, drug cheat, ball tamperers, pitch tamperers, etc that have represented Pakistan has received. Why? Just because you dislike the way he approached the game? He retired years ago. He is not a criminal who deserves to be hated all his life.
It depends on perspective.

Robert oppemhiemer isn't a criminal yet became one of the most hated men on the planet by foreign countries at one point due to building the atomic bomb. He wasn't as evil as actual soldier's killing people in WW2 yet he was more hated

Misbah's captaincy and coaching stint was so bad that they literally dub it as the dark days. Which is ironic considering its not like Pakistan is a world beater of a team. We still suck, so the fact that we suck and still his era is referred to as the dark days is a low blow.
 
Babar Captain, Misbah batting consultant and Mickey Arthur coach

A recipe for disaster in Pakistan cricket.
 
Last edited:
Misbah is a step backward in life.

Even if you are his die hard fan, you need to accept that honestly.
 
Worst thing Babar would do is drop 1-2 decent players.

Misbah will assemble top 4 comprising of Imam, Shan, Babar, Rizwan in the white ball formats with Ayub coming at 6-7. Iftikhar and Nauman Ali, both in their 50s, would get the most backing.
 
Misbah's issue is when he came as captain, he instantly had a defeat mindset.

He straight up admitted that Pakistan is beyond hope and that only he is the saviour. He only wanted Pakistan to become a test team and his focus was on that.

When it comes to odi and t20, he felt that Pakistan was an automatic failure and should resort to 1992 tactics of 5 accumulators at the top and 2 one hit wonders at 6 and 7. Ironically we did this in 2023 as well .

Anyway Sarfraz winning 2017 was the biggest Slap in the face of any misbah/ babar/ Rizwan fan to date.

It's such a Slap in the face that people are calling flukes despite the fact that we crushed the semi and finals. If you're talking about the earlier games, the What IK did was also a fluke.

The thing is, this argument is hypocritical, because if Misbah won 2017 or if babar won 2022 wc, everyone would go on a rant claiming how misbah and Babar are historic goat captains who took their team home.

No one would ever use the fluke argument and would just say oh well IK also fluked, Bit because it was sarfraz who won the trophy, A man that misbah tried to get rid of an having akmal keep over him, it causes people's skin to boil claiming flukes.
 
Make no mistake, 90% of problems pakistan have is due to misbah.

Afridi had a nothing team of akmals, Younis, Asad shafiq and a spent force razzaq. Still be managed to be competitive and beat an all star Sri lankan team and shattered Australia unbeaten record.

He lost to the strongest team in the tournament playing on home soil.

Misbah nothing team is an excuse.

We had Sharjeel who had a fantastic track record in Australia at the time, fakhar who was a rising star and was in red bit form in domestic, sami aslam who was the highest scorer and was far superior to shehzad and jamshed, Azhar Ali while not ideal could have pitched In.

For the middle order we could have taken fawad alam who was our highest run getter in 2014 rather then YK, we could have seriously uktised malik as a replacement to hafeez in the middle order, imad waseem was in the ranks, Babar was young and inexperienced at the time sane age as sami but he'd be a solid investment to bring in early.

No one told him to take ehsan adil, Shehzad, Jamshed, younis Khan, sohaib maqsood and other failures. And no one told him to have Umar akmal keep over sarfraz lol.
 
Misbah has no shame! He is only on Cricket so he can make ways for his son! Who is worst Thn Umar Akmal
 
Let's actually bring misbah back, and remove imad and Amir.

Misbah as coach and Babar as captain. Kamal combo 😂😂.

I'm dead serious. This way everyone's happy. I get to watch Pakistan get butchered.

Misbah fans get to fall in love with misbah again.

Babar fans can live in cloud 9

Imad and Amir are out and replaced with nawaz and Hasan Ali.

Please let this happen
 
Let's actually bring misbah back, and remove imad and Amir.

Misbah as coach and Babar as captain. Kamal combo 😂😂.

I'm dead serious. This way everyone's happy. I get to watch Pakistan get butchered.

Misbah fans get to fall in love with misbah again.

Babar fans can live in cloud 9

Imad and Amir are out and replaced with nawaz and Hasan Ali.

Please let this happen
you know what I was actually gonna post something very similar to this until I read it! Just be done with it and consign Pakistan to the trash heap of cricket history.

In a few years we’ll play the same story as hockey. Oh you remember years we ago we were actually pretty good at cricket.
 
This is the recipe of disaster i am sure Babar wont want to go with Misbah as a head coach after seeing what he did in his tenure.. he was acting more like a SHO.
 
I want Misbah to return as the red ball coach. He also has an understanding of BazBall because during his playing days, he already played aggressive cricket in Tests before the formal invention of BazBall.
 
I want Misbah to return as the red ball coach. He also has an understanding of BazBall because during his playing days, he already played aggressive cricket in Tests before the formal invention of BazBall.
His playing days??? We want to move forward in cricket not backwards. His tuktuk days are over he can concentrate on his degree
 
His playing days??? We want to move forward in cricket not backwards. His tuktuk days are over he can concentrate on his degree


How can you say this? Misbah was an aggressive batter even in test cricket. Yes, due to some situations and early wickets falling, he had to play with a lower strike rate.

As I'm talking about test cricket here, don't forget Misbah has the record for the joint second-fastest century in test cricket. Also, don't forget our famous test victory in which we pulled off a thrilling win in the third and final Test against Sri Lanka in Sharjah, in which Misbah scored 68* with a strike rate of 94.
 
How can you say this? Misbah was an aggressive batter even in test cricket. Yes, due to some situations and early wickets falling, he had to play with a lower strike rate.

As I'm talking about test cricket here, don't forget Misbah has the record for the joint second-fastest century in test cricket. Also, don't forget our famous test victory in which we pulled off a thrilling win in the third and final Test against Sri Lanka in Sharjah, in which Misbah scored 68* with a strike rate of 94.
2 words - declaration bowling
 
Uhh? Babar ig?

Misbah as coach means having accumulators at the top with one hit wonders at the bottom like khusdil Shah lol.

Babar took us to no 1 against c string sides whereas with misbah we wouldn't be able to even do that.

Honestly idk

One captain thought the idea of Abdullah, Imam, rizwan, Agha, Shadab, and nawaz batting around him would be a great idea,

The other thought an opening pair of shehzad, Jamshed, shafiq and umar akmal over a specialist keeper like sarfi would be a great idea..

Neither of these 2 are great options.
Exactly neither of these 2 ... I would take Babar as captain if hav to take Misbah be it any role..

He can talk all the problems in PCB & PCT when given the mic but does nothing , moreover makes it more worse....
 
Exactly neither of these 2 ... I would take Babar as captain if hav to take Misbah be it any role..

He can talk all the problems in PCB & PCT when given the mic but does nothing , moreover makes it more worse....
Babar is worse tbh, just saying. Although misbah even worse
 
Back
Top