Misbah-ul-Haq and Waqar Younis' Azhar Ali ODI captaincy recommendation to the PCB in 2015

[Savak]

Given Azhar Ali's struggles in the ODI format against the top sides and his ODI retirement announcement today, it is safe to say that the 2015 recommendation by Misbah and Waqar proved to be disasterous.

If the right appointment of captaincy had been made in 2015, Sarfaraz would have had 3-4 years of international captaincy experience by now and more time to settle in on a more settled team combination.

How should these 2 individuals be held responsible for such a disasterous recommendation?

 

[ads101]

Misbah shouldn't have really been captain by the year 2015 with such a disastrous record in ODIs anyway. Someone else should have been given a go before that, and we wouldn't have had the situation where Azhar was one of the few choices left. I blame the board for that, you shouldn't just accept losing for years on end like that. Retain Misbah as a player not captain in ODIs.

Azhar had to suddenly learn to adapt his game for ODIs, learn to captain, and take over from a team which had been pretty poor. Wasn't fair on him. With no backup of test captaincy success given Misbah was still captain there. The format where initially it seemed like he was being groomed to take over, not ODIs.

I think the reason they didn't give it to Sarfraz was simply they didn't want to ruin him for future captaincy as they took the risk for Azhar. Sarfraz was too new to the side in ODIs and handling wicketkeeping/batting. I think the point was to try Azhar and if it didn't work and Sarfraz was still performing, to give him a go, once he'd got a bit more ODI experience under his belt.

 

[SarfiBabarHaris]

Misbah and Waqar are 2 of the most clueless Pak cricketers when it comes to identifying talent in different categories.

There isnt a single world class player Misbah gave us even after 7-8 years of captaincy. Waqar was a clueless coach who should never have been appointed as head coach, at max a bowling coach. These 2 and their combination hurt Pak cricket a lot.

Waqar even was against Sarfraz in WC 2015 and openly criticized him but he gave him a shut up call by becoming the man of the match in his first 2 matches of WC through which we escaped humiliation by getting out in first round.

 

[Savak]

Clueless and Waqar. No surprise at all. Also no surprise apart from Pakistan, he has never been able to convince his case to other sides for making him coach. Even Aqib Javed was able to get a job offer from the UAE team.

 

[SarfiBabarHaris]

I honestly couldnt understand why Azhar was made odi captain.

Not an odi batsman, wasnt a part of world cup squad, didnt have captaincy experience in domestic but suddenly recommended as odi captain. Why? Is it because he was a acha bacha and a good choice as a yes man?

Azhar k sath bhi ghalat hua ye. Thrown into captaincy when he wasnt ready and dint have domestic experience.

 

[Savak]

I honestly couldnt understand why Azhar was made odi captain.

Not an odi batsman, wasnt a part of world cup squad, didnt have captaincy experience in domestic but suddenly recommended as odi captain. Why? Is it because he was a acha bacha and a good choice as a yes man?

Azhar k sath bhi ghalat hua ye. Thrown into captaincy when he wasnt ready and dint have domestic experience.

Waqar wanted a yes man, plain and simple

 

[Usman]

In 2015, Azhar Ali averaged 45.59 at a strike rate of 84.24 with 2 hundreds and 3 fifties. Even in games where he didn't get a fifty, he largely contributed - there were very few low scores.

On the basis of this evidence, you cannot fault Misbah and Waqar for recommending Azhar for captaincy. It's easy to reach judgments with hindsight but at that time with the information they had, Misbah and Waqar made the correct choice.

 

[Savak]

In 2015, Azhar Ali averaged 45.59 at a strike rate of 84.24 with 2 hundreds and 3 fifties. Even in games where he didn't get a fifty, he largely contributed - there were very few low scores.

On the basis of this evidence, you cannot fault Misbah and Waqar for recommending Azhar for captaincy. It's easy to reach judgments with hindsight but at that time with the information they had, Misbah and Waqar made the correct choice.

I am sure these stats and performances came after his appointment as captain. Who did he score these centuries against? Bangladesh? But this was not the reason why they appointed him captain was it? Why did they not select him in the ODI side before in 2013-2014 or even leading up to the WC if he was in such great form? The reason why he was appointed was because Misbah loves his defensive clones while Waqar wanted an obedient acha bacha yes man.

 

[daytrader]

It was a good decision then. Azhar was performing well and was the leading candidate. Yea he missed out on the WC but that was to accommodate seniors of that time i.e. Younis Khan, Hafeez, Afridi, Misbah. If we didn't lose that series to BD he still would've been captain.

 

[Hawkeye]

A pointless thread created out of sheer hatred and bias.

 

[SarfiBabarHaris]

In 2015, Azhar Ali averaged 45.59 at a strike rate of 84.24 with 2 hundreds and 3 fifties. Even in games where he didn't get a fifty, he largely contributed - there were very few low scores.

On the basis of this evidence, you cannot fault Misbah and Waqar for recommending Azhar for captaincy. It's easy to reach judgments with hindsight but at that time with the information they had, Misbah and Waqar made the correct choice.

Firstly Azhar scored those runs after the world cup. Secondly if he was in such great form why he wasn't selected for 2015 world cup by same Misbah and Waqar? They even had another chance after Hafeez's injury but Hafeez was replaced with Nasir Jamshed.

And btw Azhar last played odis in January 2013 so i am not sure which odi form are you guys talking about?

 

[Savak]

A pointless thread created out of sheer hatred and bias.

Not pointless at all, the question is absolutely justified.

 

[Savak]

It was a good decision then. Azhar was performing well and was the leading candidate. Yea he missed out on the WC but that was to accommodate seniors of that time i.e. Younis Khan, Hafeez, Afridi, Misbah. If we didn't lose that series to BD he still would've been captain.

Not really if Nasir Jamshed could be recalled to the ODI WC so could Azhar Ali.

 

[SarfiBabarHaris]

Not pointless at all, the question is absolutely justified.

That recommendation alone put us few years back.

Teams started to build for 2019 wc but here our 'legends' were more concerned to get a yes man. Due to that decision we were soon no 9 in rankings and were on the verge of playing world cup qualifiers. Why are such legends not questioned ever for such stuff? Atleast koi to dhang ka reason do! Who is responsible for the damage?

I wont criticize Azhar here much. He was thrown into captaincy when he didnt have domestic experience and frankly wasn't a captaincy material. It took Lahore Qalandars a very short time to know this and he was removed from LQ captaincy but it took Pakistan cricket a while.

 

[Savak]

That recommendation alone put us few years back.

Teams started to build for 2019 wc but here our 'legends' were more concerned to get a yes man. Due to that decision we were soon no 9 in rankings and were on the verge of playing world cup qualifiers. Why are such legends not questioned ever for such stuff? Atleast koi to dhang ka reason do! Who is responsible for the damage?

I wont criticize Azhar here much. He was thrown into captaincy when he didnt have domestic experience and frankly wasn't a captaincy material. It took Lahore Qalandars a very short time to know this and he was removed from LQ captaincy but it took Pakistan cricket a while.

This should be a sticky on Waqar's and Misbah's records and why no sane team will ever consider them for coaching position roles.

 

[todfod 11]

It was a recomendation nothing else. It was PCBs think tanks job to look into his credentials such as how much experience in leadership he has, what does he brings in to the team as a captain. How good is he at holding onto his nerves.
He did fail as a captain , we knew about it only when he failed.

 

[MMHS]

I don’t think anyone individually should be blamed here. That time the thought process of PAK ODI team was completely different (something we saw may be 35 years back), and in that strategy, Azhar wasn’t a bad choice for opener. He is educated and very polished guy, which will always be apriciated by Shahriar Khan, a seasoned CSP. Also, SK had to leave his office previously for the Oval incidence under a powerful captain, therefore obviously he would prefer a more softer character as Captain.

Putting wrong person in wrong job isn’t new for PCB - Malik was appointed as Test Captain, then Afridi as well, Azhar for ODI Captain, now Sarfraz for 3 formats. That ODI captaincy probably cost Azhar a shot at Test captaincy, otherwise instead of Sarfraz, he should have been Test Captain. WY probably was happy to see someone like Azhar to be captain to stump his authority. Also, they sacked Azhar, but kept him as player, which gave a wrong message- Azhar probably an inferior ODI player than the captain he was.

 

[Savak]

It was a recomendation nothing else. It was PCBs think tanks job to look into his credentials such as how much experience in leadership he has, what does he brings in to the team as a captain. How good is he at holding onto his nerves.
He did fail as a captain , we knew about it only when he failed.

So the conclusion is that Waqar and Misbah made a clueless recommendation. A justified blot on their records

 

[todfod 11]

Yeah You can say that... but they thought he would be the right at that time... and Not just waqar and Misbah but a lit of people thought he would do a better job then what he ended up on doing.

 

[natkhat-shahzada]

I am really surprised. It seems that there is clearly biased against Waqar Younis in particular if he is called clueless.

1. Because, you have ignored the recommendation on having Sarfraz being the vice-captain so he can be trained. The transition has worked very well for Sarfraz whether you accept it or not.

2. Also, we will not speak about recommendations to exclude Umar Akmal and Ahmed Shehzad which in the hindsight proved right.

3. Also, we will not speak about recommendation to have Inzy as chief selector which has been excellent choice compared to the past ones.

4. Waqar was also blamed for not playing Sarfraz as opener but time has proved that he was right in the long-run.

Yes. You can do the cherry picking but do let us know who was your choice for captaincy at that point? Malik or Hafeez or Afridi?

Btw, Azhar Ali improved his ODI game and also his captaincy was improving. The 4th ODI and 5th ODI against England were the examples of that but then he was removed.

 

[in_cutter]

Given Azhar Ali's struggles in the ODI format against the top sides and his ODI retirement announcement today, it is safe to say that the 2015 recommendation by Misbah and Waqar proved to be disasterous.

If the right appointment of captaincy had been made in 2015, Sarfaraz would have had 3-4 years of international captaincy experience by now and more time to settle in on a more settled team combination.

How should these 2 individuals be held responsible for such a disasterous recommendation?

Recommendation is one thing. But it was PCB goons that made the final decision.

 

[Abdul]

At least they didn't recommend tubby Sarfraz and I will forever be grateful to them for that. Wish Waqar was around for a bit longer so he could've got rid of Sarfraz. Nevertheless, I can't wait for Sarfraz to go.

 

[Hasan123]

Shouldn't have been made ODI captain. It has cost him the test captaincy.

 

[Savak]

So Misbah ul Haqs decision to give a 70 test match run to Azhar Ali turned out to be a horrible decision for Pakistan from a long term investment point of view but Azhar Ali was backed because he suited Misbah's brand of slow, boring defensive cricket. I hope someone asks these questions to Misbah as to what exactly did he leave for Pakistan Cricket when he retired.

I can bet my bottom dollar that even Misbah at any stage of his career would have struggled like Azhar Ali if not worse on these South African wickets