misbah needs to go
To be honest to misbah imo he was never a great batsman nor a great captain . The problem is that unfortunately we dint have any better options available at our disposal . We dont have a captaincy material candidate now either to replace him. To be honest after imran and javed miandad most of the captains that we had were below par and misbah was not an exception either . Our cricket has declined over the years , I wouldnt let the ranking system fool me for one bit , there should be more critical analyzation than just emphasizing on the ranking system . We should have seen it coming and this should have been accepted 3-0 was the most likely result . In the first test match in the uae , we almost lost to the west indiees and we eventually did loose the third test match to the lowly ranked west indiees at home . Then we lost 2-0 to new zealand in swing friendly conditions . In the past the only reason that pakistan bowling was effective in overseas conditions was because our bowlers were good at conventional and reverse swing .
Misbah was a very smart captain since he was somewhat more educated than his predecessors and had prior experience of failures he understood one thing very well . The most of the public that follows cricket in pakistan judges you by 1 thing and that is " runs scored" and batting average . I have seldom seen a player who is as selfish as misbah and all along his career he played for himself and was never a team player . I can not even count the number of " odi" matches that we lost because of his selfishness . He consumed 20-30 balls to get off the mark , his strike rate was 20-25 odd for his first 20 -30 runs and that put enormous pressure on other players and they often capitulated in that pressure created by misbah and guess what when all of them got out , he was the sole person standing on the wicket and he had no pressure on him batting with the tail whatsoever , he was just waiting for the arrival of spin bowling . This is one area where he thrived , this is his strength he is a very good player of spin bowling so he would attack spinners straight away and dominated them , through this process towards the end of the innings he managed to get the strike rate at the 80ish mark and pakistan almost always lost . Cant think of many matches where we won in " odis" with misbah standing towards the end and he had no pressure on him in all those situations . Infact people often said oh misbah is the man he made 60 with a strike rate of 80 odd what else could he have probably done , every one else gave their wicket away etc . what people dont realise is that misbah could not rotate strike at all and the person next to him would be starved of strike for many deliveries and with the run rate climbing all the time had to cover up for misbah and got out in the process .
As far as misbahs test heroics are concerned he did relatively well over there because there was no scoreboard pressure at all . He adviced all his subordinates ( azhar ali / sami aslam/ younis khan ) etc to consume as many deliveries as possible . Pakistan normally operates at 2 to 2.5 runs an over against pace even in " flat dead pitches " on the uae . This has been a trend and probably invented by misbah . So basically after these players consume 50-60 overs of pace bowling , by the time misbah comes to bat the pacers of opposing teams are usually very tired in their third , fourth spells and he blocks blocks and blocks and waits for the spinners to arrive ( knowing that those pacers are usually in their last spells) and not to mention the ball is soft and old in uae barely does anything .
As far as his captaincy goes " he is a terrible captain" as defensive as his playing style . You as an opponent only have to hit a few boundaries and he would go defensive right away . Against a team as attacking as australia you cant go defensive right away , By being defensive on a flat track you are asking for trouble .
To be a little fair to him specially in australia , we dont have the right bowling combinations ..you have to look no further than the averages of these mediocre bowlers that we have . they are extremely unfit as well and cant bowl after the first spell . what pakistan dearly missed was an allrounder even a stock bowlers who could bowl 8-10 overs at 2-3 runs an over to give rest to our pace bowlers . Yasir shah is a leg spinner and will always be an attacking option , there is no way he can contain the batsmen ( he is not a stock bowler) .
He is only good on tracks in the " uae" where the ball keeps low , there is uneven bounce and his variations work because more often than not he has the backing of 400-500 runs that teams have had to chase on a wearing fouth and fifth day pitch . He was really found wanted on these aussie tracks with little help for spinners like yasir shah who are not big turners of the ball .. danish kaneria and mushtaq were much better than him in overseas conditions . One great ability that ajmal had was that he could attack and also defend we do miss his services. The main reason for pakistan doing well in " uae " conditions in the past year or two years is because of younis khan . When he retires pakistan will miss his services in the " uae" for sure and its difficult to replace him . He is a high impact player in test matches , he rotates the strike well and one of his biggest strengths is his ability to occupy the crease for days ( when he gets to 70-80 he gets big hundreds and this is his real strength ) he deflates the opposition . azhar ali and asad shafiq have developed as good players and they are the future . what we need in the test side is more balance , an all rounder stock bowler so that you can rest your unfit ( pacers) without going at 4-5 runs an over and we need to end this era of being super defensive .. you need atleast one aggressive opener .. this is very important so that he can counter the pacers and spoil their line and length and momentum .. very essential..need a balance rite now every one plays the same brand of cricket introduced by misbah tuk tuk tuk ... we will make the opposing pacers tired on these flat uae decks ... i fancy my luck in uae and have a very high record of winning tosses .. we will bat first
you guys will consume 50-60 overs so that by the time i come , they are already tired ,ball is not doing much and i can score against their spinners ( bowling on the first and second day) with nothing to offer . If we can have 400 to defend in the last innings and yasir shah bowling on the fift day on a wearing pitch ( un even bounce ) we will almost certainly win ... winnng formula not pretty but effective .
we need some flamboyant players and end this era of tuk tuk tuk and the uae script otherwise we will never be a good team .. sohail khan is garbage .. you need another good bowler to bowl with amir ..its about pairs to maintain pressure and that will get you wickets .. on flat wickets with not much to offer amir alone cant do anything ( he is not a great bowler , please get this misconception out of your heads) he is amongst the best that we have certainly a better than average bowler
why not think out of the box and get an aggressive captain to change player psyche and mentality for a change . I think imad wasim has the potential to be a good captain , he has shown that by playing down the order under pressure . He is aggressive , confident and could he possibly do worst then azhar ali ? azhar ali is a good player without a doubt but not captaincy material ( a deputy of misbah ? he will be worst than misbah ) full defensive
but their fans are so dignified and respectful, who've stuck with their team through thick and thin whilst not turning their backs on their hero's.
Woke up after losing everything----- of no use.
