Misbah and Dhoni - Should cricketers retire early, or stick around at the risk of becoming villains?

[CricFan2012]

Misbah is often praised for having an average of 40 among batsmen like Younis, Afridi, Shehzad, Akmals, who averaged mere 30s.

He was often the lone man standing running out of partners at the other end, reaching totals of 200-250, rarely over that because Misbah was a slow batter.

Dhoni, on the other hand, is in a team with the some of the worlds best batsmen, yet he seems out of place, he is not like he once was, which can be seen by his slow batting.

Did these two players retire too late?

Misbah retired at around 41 at the end of the CWC 2015, while it looks like Dhoni will retire at the end of CWC 2019 at the age of 38.

Your reflexes take a hit at this age, and your body is not the same as it once was. It's a little difficult to say whether age affected Misbah's slow batting, or it was to prevent a loss of wickets by playing dots on good balls, but on many occasions Misbah's lack of early acceleration cost the team, the 2011 SF against India being one. His lack of big hitting throughout his innings is a reason he has never scored a century as well.

Dhoni still averages decently in his later years like Misbah did, but with a low strike rate, and his slow batting in the initial phase of his innings has costed India games, not as many as Misbah because India has a world class unit at this stage compared to Pakistan's in 2011-2015.

What makes matters worse for Dhoni is that Pant is a perfectly capable batsman and keeper who can take his place, yet he does not retire because of ego or delusion. Misbah probably thought there was no capable leader or that no batsman was stepping up, therefore delaying his retirement, or was he deluded as well and happy with scoring 40-50s from 70-80 balls and holding the place of Harris or other good batsmen?

So then the question arises, should cricketers retire earlier, or live long enough to become the villain?

 

[MenInG]

Misbah no longer playing international cricket but Dhoni is and the question is, is he holding back a youngster?

 

[big_gamer007]

Both should have called it a day after 2015 WC.

 

[moghul]

Misbah's last 3-4 years were very painful for Pakistan cricket, Dhoni just started causing pain, let India suffer a bit longer.

 

[Major]

You cant get the right answer like this, because there are 2 perspective.

One perspective is from the fan
The other prospective is from the player himself.

A fan obviously gets tired seeing a player continue playing, and its gets frustrating if that players performance is still not the same. The best example here was Inzamam. Back in 2007 I was fed up watching him play in odis as the guy was just a walking wicket.

But from a players own perspective, the player has spent his whole life in to the game. Players dont go to school, they spend 10 hours of their just practising at club level. They spend their whole life at the nets and grounds. Why? just to get a single cap of international cricekt.
ONE SINGLE DAMN CAP! ANd its not something everyone can get. Thus, once you get it, its hard to leave it

I think a player should play until he can perform. Dhoni can still bat, so nothing wrong with him playing.

ANd Misbah could still play t20.

Its easy for us to make comments that so and so should had retired, but you ahve to look at the way they have earned that cap.

 

[rhony]

The team management knows what's best for them. They knew Imran was the guy to lead the Pak team in 1992. You know what happened next.

 

[Khan12]

Granadad misbah was shameless and is still playing. What a shameless person, but he loves cricket not money i am told.

 

[GreenKhan]

Misbah retired from One day cricket after the 2015 World Cup . In that World Cup he averaged 50 and was Pakistan’s top performer with the Bat and scored several crucial 50s which helped us beat South Africa and Zimbabwe . Just a pity we had brainless players like maqsood and Akmal and Shahzad around . He was never a burden on the team .

Even his last series in test cricket he was our top scorer and averaged 60 odd .

 

[jnaveen1980]

Misbah prolonging his career most likely would not have been due to marketing reasons. Dhoni on the other hand has very very strong marketing reasons to be in the scene.

He signed a 15 crore contract with a cyber security company from Germany last year

https://economictimes.indiatimes.co...man-company/articleshow/65616145.cms?from=mdr

Trust me. Exactly 14 days back he signed a 3 year contract with Coca cola's powerade for another 15 corres

https://www.businessinsider.in/dhon...ear-endorsement-deal/articleshow/69826731.cms


He has association with 30 brands now. You know how much these companies influence to keep this guy in the side? This is why they diss Rishab Pant at every opportunity. IT was one senior player that influenced the non-selection of Pant.

 

[Ab Fan]

Dhoni is there in the team because of

1)Wicket-keeping
2)Virtual leadership and guidance in pressure moments
3)Ability to make sure that if teams needs 80 runs from 70 balls with 5 wkts left, he will take the team home
4) Also, in case, top order collapses, he will take the team to a decent total.

And this is also why, I felt that along with Dhoni, we need Pant in the XI as both are although opposite but will complement each other in many ways.

In 330 total, you will need Pant and Pandya's hitting as Dhoni won't be of much help there. However, India should have been smarter enough about this and allowed Pant to play more games so that he could have more experience going into the World Cup.

A balanced XI India should have gone with in the WC should have been:-

Rohit
Dhawan
Kohli
Rahul/Pant(Pant in the 15 man squad)
Dhoni
Jadhav(he hardly failed, so was hard to drop)
Pandya