Indiafan
Senior T20I Player
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2006
- Runs
- 19,664
- Post of the Week
- 8
I am pretty sure this is going to be Misbah's last test. Younis Khan was the other senior player under the lens but he has acquitted himself with a nice century here. Now the obvious question would be - should he retire here on a high (he has achieved 10,000 runs, century in every country)
IMO losing both seniors would be disastrous for this team with no seniors to guide them. If we look at captaincy, I am not sure Azhar is ready to lead the team here yet and there seems to be no other eligible contenders in sight who have both, cemented there place in the team and are mature and experienced enough
So PCB would have 4 options here.
1) Obvious one is to make Azhar Ali the test captain.
Azhar has not really impressed people with his ODI captaincy and with his batting form and him being the most important batsman in the side, I am not sure how captaincy will affect him. The team needs his batting much, much more than his captaincy at the moment
2) Make someone captain out of the blue.
Who are the settled players in the team who are sure of their place? Amir? Wahab? Sarfraz? Yasir? None of them seem the answer to me. It can be a good experience yet these players are in iffy form and I doubt how the extra pressure is going to help any of them. Except Sarfraz, none of them have shown any leadership skills
3) Get a previous senior player back in the team just for the sake of captaincy
PCB has done this many time before. A player who was not in the team, but has experience, has come back as captain. Examples are - Hafeez and Malik. To me, that would be taking one step forward and two steps back and definitely not a long time solution
4) Appoint Younis Khan as a temporary captain while they groom a younger player
This to me has many advantages. Younis can help the younger players in the team and guide them in Misbah's absence. He doesn't have many years left so his tenure is going to be a temporary one with him being aware of the same. This allows PCB to look at younger players they want to groom for captaincy and assess them. Maybe Amir after one year would be a different story and more settled in the team
I know Younis's last captaincy stint was with mixed results. However I see no better man to take the reigns of the team temporarily and who can groom both the players and the next captain. After losing Misbah, his experience will come handy
IMO losing both seniors would be disastrous for this team with no seniors to guide them. If we look at captaincy, I am not sure Azhar is ready to lead the team here yet and there seems to be no other eligible contenders in sight who have both, cemented there place in the team and are mature and experienced enough
So PCB would have 4 options here.
1) Obvious one is to make Azhar Ali the test captain.
Azhar has not really impressed people with his ODI captaincy and with his batting form and him being the most important batsman in the side, I am not sure how captaincy will affect him. The team needs his batting much, much more than his captaincy at the moment
2) Make someone captain out of the blue.
Who are the settled players in the team who are sure of their place? Amir? Wahab? Sarfraz? Yasir? None of them seem the answer to me. It can be a good experience yet these players are in iffy form and I doubt how the extra pressure is going to help any of them. Except Sarfraz, none of them have shown any leadership skills
3) Get a previous senior player back in the team just for the sake of captaincy
PCB has done this many time before. A player who was not in the team, but has experience, has come back as captain. Examples are - Hafeez and Malik. To me, that would be taking one step forward and two steps back and definitely not a long time solution
4) Appoint Younis Khan as a temporary captain while they groom a younger player
This to me has many advantages. Younis can help the younger players in the team and guide them in Misbah's absence. He doesn't have many years left so his tenure is going to be a temporary one with him being aware of the same. This allows PCB to look at younger players they want to groom for captaincy and assess them. Maybe Amir after one year would be a different story and more settled in the team
I know Younis's last captaincy stint was with mixed results. However I see no better man to take the reigns of the team temporarily and who can groom both the players and the next captain. After losing Misbah, his experience will come handy