Is the Pakistan Test team moving in the right direction under Misbah-ul-Haq's coaching?

[RyanRyan10]

Under Mickey, Pak had dropped to 7th position and lost 2 series in UAE.

Mickey played just one spinner against SRL and then picked BilL Asif against NZL. He didn't select Fawad Alam. Also persisted with Sarfaraz despite his repeated failures.

Under Miabah, Pakistan has again started dominating at home. Some fans go overboard with selection of veterans but the performances from Fawad Alam & Nauman Ali are proving Misbah right.

Pakistan now have 2 gun middle order batsmen in form of Babar Azam & Fawad Alam. Azhar Ali is also back in form. Mohammad Rizwan (he was also brought into team by Misbah) and Faheem Ashraf score whenever chips are down. Tailenders can also also contribute with the bat. Their only problem currently seems to be their openers.

Bowling is also looking very potent. Now they have another quality spinner to support Yasir. Hasan Ali is back, Shaheen was already there. Faheem is a very good as 5th bowling option.

I seem them getting touching 100 point mark in tests very soon and thry may end up in top 3 within couple of years.

 

[MesonK]

Shaheens opening partner
Openers
Slip Fielding


Three massive problems need to be sorted out.

 

[szrana007]

Oh, FGS, we have only won 1 match at home. Not a bad start yes, but far from home domination . These kind of threads are premature. Pak needs to win this series first then we can analyze if the team is moving in the right direction or not.

 

[Cricket lover 27]

No, Misbah needs to be removed. This win does not mean that we brush under the carpet our recent failures.

 

[BunnyRabbit]

Too early to say, but seems a few degrees on the right side than it was during Mickey's era.

Mickey's rigid philosophy was never going to succeed in asia (for test cricket). Whether it was going in with a solitary spinner in UAE or impatience with Sami Aslam and Fakhar.

Misbah has already taken more bold decisions than Mickey did in his tenure. His only notable achievement was the test victory at Lord's.

Mickey's staff is basically The Excuse Squad. Every time we would lose a match, "I have no idea what went wrong", "I can't explain that" and stuff like that came up. The same is happening in Sri Lankan cricket as well.

I have a bad feeling about Waqar though. Don't think he'll be able to develop a good pace bowling attack.

 

[wasimjunior]

No, Misbah needs to be removed. This win does not mean that we brush under the carpet our recent failures.

South Africa capitulated yesterday evening otherwise we would have lost this game too.

Ridiculous thread.

 

[moghul]

Ridiculous question, just one win on tailer made home condition and Misnah's sins are forgiven ? do we really have such a short memory, what is the purpose of this thread. Is this really a question and not a done deal that this man has made Pakistan a laughing stock in world cricket.

That was my worry, there are people around with extremely short memory.

Only an Indian can get a kick out of it.

 

[shaz619]

One win and Pakistan are going to dominate for sure and will be in the top 3 etc enjoy the win mate but don’t take the...

 

[Major]

Misbah gets the benefit because he played young pacers.
He went all out with the pacers.

They didnt perform.

If misbah whitewashes this one, i have no issue with him staying on as pakistan is going to play home matches now.

Mind you he still yet to lose one day match

 

[Ahson8]

Misbah gets the benefit because he played young pacers.
He went all out with the pacers.

They didnt perform.

If misbah whitewashes this one, i have no issue with him staying on as pakistan is going to play home matches now.

Mind you he still yet to lose one day match

We lost to Zimbabwe, have some shame.

 

[Mamoon]

Yes in Test cricket and no in Limited Overs cricket.

Pakistan does not have the quality to win overseas in Test cricket, but under Mickey, Pakistan started losing at home (UAE) because of his obsession to play 3 pacers and poor spinners just because they could bat a bit.

As long as Yasir is around, Pakistan should not be shelling home Tests to any side excluding India. However, Mickey pulled it off.

Misbah understands how to win Test matches in Asia especially on slow, dry wickets. His tactics helped Pakistan become number 1 in 2016 and it will help Pakistan become formidable at home again.

Obviously he is lucky to not play India in bilateral cricket but it is not his fault or problem.

In Limited Overs, Pakistan also does not have the quality to beat the top sides but under Mickey, Pakistan was a very efficient minnow-basher.

Under Misbah, Pakistan has started to lose to minnows again. He showed the same tendency when he was captain.

Overall, Pakistan is an extremely poor team that is bankrupt in terms of talent, skill and mentality. You should not expect miracles from any coach.

Those who want Misbah to be sacked are deluding themselves into thinking that he is holding back the potential of this team. That is nonsense because we have no potential beyond winning home Tests and Misbah will ensure that.

 

[Ahson8]

Yes in Test cricket and no in Limited Overs cricket.

Pakistan does not have the quality to win overseas in Test cricket, but under Mickey, Pakistan started losing at home (UAE) because of his obsession to play 3 pacers and poor spinners just because they could bat a bit.

As long as Yasir is around, Pakistan should not be shelling home Tests to any side excluding India. However, Mickey pulled it off.

Misbah understands how to win Test matches in Asia especially on slow, dry wickets. His tactics helped Pakistan become number 1 in 2016 and it will help Pakistan become formidable at home again.

Obviously he is lucky to not play India in bilateral cricket but it is not his fault or problem.

In Limited Overs, Pakistan also does not have the quality to beat the top sides but under Mickey, Pakistan was a very efficient minnow-basher.

Under Misbah, Pakistan has started to lose to minnows again. He showed the same tendency when he was captain.

Overall, Pakistan is an extremely poor team that is bankrupt in terms of talent, skill and mentality. You should not expect miracles from any coach.

Those who want Misbah to be sacked are deluding themselves into thinking that he is holding back the potential of this team. That is nonsense because we have no potential beyond winning home Tests and Misbah will ensure that.

When there were rumours of Misbah being appointed initially, I was hoping somehow they'd split the coaching and give the test team to Misbah and the LO teams to another coach, but I guess that wasn't feasible.

 

[Barragan]

No, it is more down to the new selector picking players based on FC stats.

misbah is a failure and should be removed.

 

[naseem]

Need more home series for boosting confidence and morale ....

 

[Shazzam]

I guess we forgot that we are actually doing horrible in Test championships.

 

[Saj]

Steady on.

They have only won 1 Test match, that too at home, in favourable conditions, against probably the poorest players of spin bowling in the world.

 

[azimiqbal]

I don’t think misbah is upto the job , if we are going to keep him I would only do for test cricket definitely not for white ball cricket

 

[Shazzam]

I don’t think misbah is upto the job , if we are going to keep him I would only do for test cricket definitely not for white ball cricket

So you would take a Test win over a World Cup win?

 

[Kroll]

Every single one of his little experiments has blown up big time on his face. Need to get rid asap.

 

[HappyWarsFan]

So you would take a Test win over a World Cup win?

I would happily have our Test team in top 3 if it means we become minnows in white ball cricket. Test cricket is the only thing that matters.

 

[Bigboii]

Tests ok...
LOI's hell no and will only regress from here

 

[gani999]

Steady on.

They have only won 1 Test match, that too at home, in favourable conditions, against probably the poorest players of spin bowling in the world.

Very true. Too many people going overboard here.

SA may well bounce back in the next test. Let's wait and watch.

 

[Bigboii]

Very true. Too many people going overboard here.

SA may well bounce back in the next test. Let's wait and watch.

I know enough about Misbah to say it with near certainty that we'll be a formidable team in home conditions after couple of test matches
He knows how to build an Asian test team and the tactics needed to win in Asia

other than that Pakistan will become a number 7,8 team in Lois while I can very well see Pak in top 4 test teams in 2-3 years time under him (provided they play enough test matches)

 

[Saj]

For me today's 2nd innings batting performance was a concern about the coaching and the mindset.

Instead of hammering home the advantage of a useful 71 run lead, they went into their shell and opted to scratch around and play for time and ended up making a right mess of the innings.

63/4 from 31.2 overs - I mean what was that supposed to be?

Really poor mindset and approach.

 

[Thunderbolt14]

For me today's 2nd innings batting performance was a concern about the coaching and the mindset.

Instead of hammering home the advantage of a useful 71 run lead, they went into their shell and opted to scratch around and play for time and ended up making a right mess of the innings.

63/4 from 31.2 overs - I mean what was that supposed to be?

Really poor mindset and approach.

Misbah’s primary coaching duties between last test match and this one should have been entirely focused on Abid Ali and Imran Butt. Neither of them look any more confident than before - frightened of the ball really.

 

[Babar_Azam_fan]

Yes certainly. Openers scoring 2 from 25 and 7 from 30 is right from Misbah’s school of thought

 

[Osman]

For me today's 2nd innings batting performance was a concern about the coaching and the mindset.

Instead of hammering home the advantage of a useful 71 run lead, they went into their shell and opted to scratch around and play for time and ended up making a right mess of the innings.

63/4 from 31.2 overs - I mean what was that supposed to be?

Really poor mindset and approach.

I’m glad someone else has pointed this out. It sure as hell needs to be looked into. This probably deserves a thread of its own - the consitent inability to kill off games. Was hoping we would be sat here now at the end of Day 3 knowing that we almost certainly have batted SA out of the game. It may not cost us here on a subcontinent wearing pitch - but it sure did against England in Southampton. It is happening regularly. Can even recall the NZ series in 2018 the final test where despite being in a good position we threw it away and allowed NZ a way back.

Instead of batting long and putting opposition completely out of the game we give them a way back in. Someone needs to point this out to management as clearly no lesson was learnt from the England tour and I wonder if it’s even being noticed by the people in charge.

 

[Shafi]

Misbah and Waqar at least need 10-15 years to improve our team. 2 years are too early. Both are learning at the moment from match by match.
Another 5-10 years time we will see Wasim, Stein, Mcgrath, Warne in our bowling under Waqar.
Under Misbah we will see Gilchrist, Kohli, Bradman, Tendulqar, Root, Rohit in our batting.
We will start winning World Cups after 2030. We just need to be patient little bit longer.

 

[Kroll]

Misbah and Waqar at least need 10-15 years to improve our team. 2 years are too early. Both are learning at the moment from match by match.
Another 5-10 years time we will see Wasim, Stein, Mcgrath, Warne in our bowling under Waqar.
Under Misbah we will see Gilchrist, Kohli, Bradman, Tendulqar, Root, Rohit in our batting.
We will start winning World Cups after 2030. We just need to be patient little bit longer.

If you gave them 10-15 years, we'd be registered as an associate team by then, no longer good enough to qualify as a Test team or automatically for WC's.

 

[MRSN]

For me today's 2nd innings batting performance was a concern about the coaching and the mindset.

Instead of hammering home the advantage of a useful 71 run lead, they went into their shell and opted to scratch around and play for time and ended up making a right mess of the innings.

63/4 from 31.2 overs - I mean what was that supposed to be?

Really poor mindset and approach.

Misbah should never have been allowed to be anywhere near Pakistan side. He was such a negative and impactless player himself. What exactly is he going to pass on to youngsters. He was also one of the mediocre batsmen against fast bowling. basically he would just play out the pacers and march against spin for his scores. He was the definition of what we saw today in the first 15 overs. Very overrated player who got the most benefit of trio's spot fixing.

 

[TheSultan]

Reading some of the comments and celebrations over one victory in this thread proves to me why we actually deserve a pathetic, mediocre coach like Misbah.

 

[RyanRyan10]

Misbah is here to stay

Even pacers are performing

Pakistan moves up to no.5

Dark days of Mickey are indeed over [MENTION=134608]Hawkeye[/MENTION]

 

[Pakhs]

Misbah is here to stay

Even pacers are performing

Pakistan moves up to no.5

Dark days of Mickey are indeed over [MENTION=134608]Hawkeye[/MENTION]

They are about number 5 team for now.

 

[Nikhil_cric]

Dawn of a brave new era of Pakistani test teams!

With some excellent selections by Mo Wasim, Pakistan has now whitewashed SA( first time ever) and risen to no. 5 for probably the first time since 2017.

If Pakistan can find quality openers, this should become a side that can dominate at home and compete very well say. Once again, Mohammad Wasim deserves credit for turning Pakistan's fortunes around in such a dominant fashion.

 

[FastBowlingAllrounder]

With some excellent selections by Mo Wasim, Pakistan has now whitewashed SA( first time ever) and risen to no. 5 for probably the first time since 2017.

If Pakistan can find quality openers, this should become a side that can dominate at home and compete very well say. Once again, Mohammad Wasim deserves credit for turning Pakistan's fortunes around in such a dominant fashion.

Hope Mo Wasim doesn't fizzle out like Mickey. And Pak cricket will start doing well the day they get rid of this oldies worship culture of senior junior.

And yes, the opener problem...

 

[Energy]

Consistent home season is key. If Pakistan can have that going forward, 5-6 tests at home at least every year then we'll always be around the No.4/5 test ranking which is fair.

 

[Hasan123]

We seem a lot more reliant under him in tests and he is backing specialist spinners.