the thing about misbah is that he has become the holy grail of pakistan cricket and saying anything against him is considered as blasphemy. out and out he has been a great ambassador for pakistan and has done a lot of good things, some of which, we will dearly miss once he is gone but he is also not the savior that is being portrayed by his supporters and followers.
the simple fact that as a batsman he is not good enough to make it in the team is evidence enough. i have with my limited experiences and all that, always thought of misbah as a basic tape ball player. he does not have the shots against the pace bowlers which are required to keep the scoreboard ticking. more of a hit or miss player and most of his strokes are high risk shots. that is also the reason why he goes full block mode whenever there is pressure on him because simply put, he is not a gifted batsman.
i would have loved if he had retired after the england series, the fact that the new captain would have gotten a chance against west indies would have been ideal. he deserves criticism for prolonging his career and also based on merit, he does not deserve to be in the test team. shafiq should have been bedded at five and some youngster could have been tried at his place. this will eventually become a small footnote in his glorious career by pakistani standards but the long term planning failure will continue to haunt us and ensure that we are not going to become consistent world beaters.
that number one ranking that we got, instead of being a springboard to further success, will become an unusual glitch in an otherwise normal ordinary service. and to me, that is what defines misbah's legacy - an aberration and not the norm, but a glorious aberration with one perfect moment under the sun.