Misbah-ul-Haq has been the Pakistan Head Coach and Chief Selector for a year now. He has won 2 home Tests and drawn another, and he has lost 3 away Tests.
Let me be honest: he is not my cup of tea but he is doing fine as the Head Coach. My concerns relate to how he is performing as the Chief Selector, and in particular his failure to address the key questions. To be quite frank, I don't think he even recognises those questions, let alone tries to answer them.
Test cricket now consists of a rolling 2 year cycle of World Test Championships. Apart from the Ashes, nothing else matters.
The need to build a stable team which will have continuity for the next half-decade is now all-important. No team can afford the type of instability and failure that was caused by senior players like Misbah and Younis retiring together - and the same applies to senior players deteriorating together.
Consider the case of Pakistan's batting. When Misbah replaced Mickey Arthur, it consisted at that time of:
Imam-ul-Haq, aged 23 and yet to establish himself.
Shan Masood, aged 29 and just starting to establish himself.
Azhar Ali, aged 34 and in clear decline.
Babar Azam, aged 24 and in supreme touch.
Asad Shafiq, aged 33 and having remained mediocre since becoming a senior batsman.
Haris Sohail, aged 30 and struggling outside Asia.
The first question here is "HOW DO YOU BUILD A STABLE BATTING LINE-UP?"
I would argue that you need to replace one of the two failing 30-something veterans - either Azhar Ali or Asad Shafiq. And you need to replace him with a player from a younger generation. Take your pick between Sami Aslam, Imran Butt or Zeeshan Malik - they are all in their mid-twenties, all scored lots of domestic runs and ensure that you won't face a situation with elderly batsmen deteriorating or retiring together.
But that is not how Misbah thinks - he always plumps for "experience" and so now 18 months after the last Arthur/Inzamam team the opening batsmen are:
Shan Masood, now almost 31 and doing well.
Abid Ali, almost 33 and a Test rookie.
I understand Misbah's thinking, but he is wrong. Even if Abid Ali was performing, he leaves you with two openers who will be 34 and 35 years old at the end of just the second World Test Championship. They would need to be replaced together and the cycle of instability would continue. Was it worth choosing a geriatric rookie?
Sami Aslam was Pakistan's top batsman on the 2016 tour of England - he averaged 55.66 compared to Misbah's 40.28. Misbah thinks that investing in older players like Abid Ali gives him "experience" but the reality is that in adding the likes of Abid Ali instead of Sami Aslam, Kashif Bhatti instead of Zafar Gohar and Imran Khan instead of Ehsan Adil he just fills the team with ageing unestablished players and prevents himself from having a stable core of 20-something players in his team. Fawad Alam's place in the squad has a similar impact.
Extreme youth is as much of a self-inflicted wound in this regard as extreme age is. Pakistan has too many very young bowlers, combined with very old ones like Imran and Sohail, and the entire twenty-something cohort of the likes of Zafar Gohar, Sajid Khan, Ehsan Adil and Sameen Gul is ignored.
The foundation of any sports team is players aged 23-29. You can pick one or two older players so long as you replace them year by year with one or two very young ones.
But you can't build a stable team entirely consisting of guys aged over 30 and under 22. There is no foundation, no core, no stability.
The same applies to the bowling - the question should be "HOW DO I BUILD A STABLE BOWLING UNIT FOR THE NEXT HALF-DECADE?"
There are several major problems here.
1. Mohammad Abbas is short on pace and may have limited future utility.
2. Shaheen and Naseem are very promising, but can you afford for your two best bowlers to be so young? Can you pick them together?
3. Yasir Shah remains a better bowler than Shadab Khan but he's in his mid-30's and he can no longer win you Tests even on a dry wicket like Manchester in the fourth innings. There is no top young specialist leggie coming through, but Shadab Khan is a young leg-spinning all-rounder and is probably a better investment. And there are two other types of spinner in their mid-20's who can bat - Zafar Gohar and Sajid Khan.
4. Imran Khan and Sohail Khan are Misbah favourites but are both slow, unfit and past their peak. Is it really worth picking them for squads ahead of Ehsan Adil or Sameen Gul?
The Head Coach's job is to pick a team for today. But the Chief Selector needs to build and develop a long-term squad with a stable core - and Misbah has done the precise opposite. But to be fair to him, the two jobs combine priorities which are not easily reconciled.
Pakistan will never have a tour with the luxury of this one - taking 29 players to England for 8 weeks.
This was the chance to blend the likes of Zeeshan Malik, Rohail Nazir, Zafar Gohar and Sajid Khan in with the core Test team to build a solid, stable squad.
Instead their positions have gone to men in their 30s who do the same job, but offer no long-term anything. Abid Ali. Sarfraz Ahmed. Kashif Bhatti. Iftikhar Ahmed. And Imran Khan and Sohail Khan and Fawad Alam.
So here are my simple questions to help Misbah to design a Test squad.
1. Which 4 batsmen are your core batsmen under 30 whom you can assume will still be in the team in 2025? Babar Azam and ?Imam. ?Sami Aslam?
2. Who is your overage batsman aged 32+ whom you will forcibly retire after one bad series? You can have Azhar or Shafiq or Abid - but only one of them.
3. Who is your veteran batsman aged 30-32 whom you wish to keep? Presumably Shan Masood, or you could have Haris Sohail. But not both.
4. What is the balance of your attack? You need 5 bowlers, but 3 have to be able to bat, of whom 2 need to bat well. This suggests that Shadab Khan and Zafar Gohar will be required, which suggests that Yasir Shah is on shaky ground.
5. Who are your top fast bowlers? Clearly Naseem Shah and Shaheen Shah Afridi. But they are aged ?19 and 20 - does this mean that you need to prioritise the reintegration of Ehsan Adil and Sameen Gul as senior but not geriatric team-mates to bowl the long overs to keep the youngsters fresh?
6. How do you create what you don't have? The desperate need is for a fast-bowling all-rounder at Number 8. But Faheem Ashraf isn't batting well enough, Amir Yamin is too old and Amad Butt isn't good enough with bat and ball. But you can't do without this role - you need to identify 2 guys and build up their batting and bowling with intensive coaching and total immersion with the Test squad.
Misbah's approach has been to combine veterans with rookies and ignore the balance of the squad or the stability of its core. But he has lost every away Test that he has played - just as he used to do as the captain.
Veterans and Kids only.
Veteran batsmen who never score runs, leaving 3 Number 11s to score the runs that the specialist batsmen cannot.
A bowling attack with no member aged between 21 and 29.
An army of back-up players on the wrong side of 30.
This is a highly unstable mix. And it is enfeebling what should be a really good team.
Let me be honest: he is not my cup of tea but he is doing fine as the Head Coach. My concerns relate to how he is performing as the Chief Selector, and in particular his failure to address the key questions. To be quite frank, I don't think he even recognises those questions, let alone tries to answer them.
Test cricket now consists of a rolling 2 year cycle of World Test Championships. Apart from the Ashes, nothing else matters.
The need to build a stable team which will have continuity for the next half-decade is now all-important. No team can afford the type of instability and failure that was caused by senior players like Misbah and Younis retiring together - and the same applies to senior players deteriorating together.
Consider the case of Pakistan's batting. When Misbah replaced Mickey Arthur, it consisted at that time of:
Imam-ul-Haq, aged 23 and yet to establish himself.
Shan Masood, aged 29 and just starting to establish himself.
Azhar Ali, aged 34 and in clear decline.
Babar Azam, aged 24 and in supreme touch.
Asad Shafiq, aged 33 and having remained mediocre since becoming a senior batsman.
Haris Sohail, aged 30 and struggling outside Asia.
The first question here is "HOW DO YOU BUILD A STABLE BATTING LINE-UP?"
I would argue that you need to replace one of the two failing 30-something veterans - either Azhar Ali or Asad Shafiq. And you need to replace him with a player from a younger generation. Take your pick between Sami Aslam, Imran Butt or Zeeshan Malik - they are all in their mid-twenties, all scored lots of domestic runs and ensure that you won't face a situation with elderly batsmen deteriorating or retiring together.
But that is not how Misbah thinks - he always plumps for "experience" and so now 18 months after the last Arthur/Inzamam team the opening batsmen are:
Shan Masood, now almost 31 and doing well.
Abid Ali, almost 33 and a Test rookie.
I understand Misbah's thinking, but he is wrong. Even if Abid Ali was performing, he leaves you with two openers who will be 34 and 35 years old at the end of just the second World Test Championship. They would need to be replaced together and the cycle of instability would continue. Was it worth choosing a geriatric rookie?
Sami Aslam was Pakistan's top batsman on the 2016 tour of England - he averaged 55.66 compared to Misbah's 40.28. Misbah thinks that investing in older players like Abid Ali gives him "experience" but the reality is that in adding the likes of Abid Ali instead of Sami Aslam, Kashif Bhatti instead of Zafar Gohar and Imran Khan instead of Ehsan Adil he just fills the team with ageing unestablished players and prevents himself from having a stable core of 20-something players in his team. Fawad Alam's place in the squad has a similar impact.
Extreme youth is as much of a self-inflicted wound in this regard as extreme age is. Pakistan has too many very young bowlers, combined with very old ones like Imran and Sohail, and the entire twenty-something cohort of the likes of Zafar Gohar, Sajid Khan, Ehsan Adil and Sameen Gul is ignored.
The foundation of any sports team is players aged 23-29. You can pick one or two older players so long as you replace them year by year with one or two very young ones.
But you can't build a stable team entirely consisting of guys aged over 30 and under 22. There is no foundation, no core, no stability.
The same applies to the bowling - the question should be "HOW DO I BUILD A STABLE BOWLING UNIT FOR THE NEXT HALF-DECADE?"
There are several major problems here.
1. Mohammad Abbas is short on pace and may have limited future utility.
2. Shaheen and Naseem are very promising, but can you afford for your two best bowlers to be so young? Can you pick them together?
3. Yasir Shah remains a better bowler than Shadab Khan but he's in his mid-30's and he can no longer win you Tests even on a dry wicket like Manchester in the fourth innings. There is no top young specialist leggie coming through, but Shadab Khan is a young leg-spinning all-rounder and is probably a better investment. And there are two other types of spinner in their mid-20's who can bat - Zafar Gohar and Sajid Khan.
4. Imran Khan and Sohail Khan are Misbah favourites but are both slow, unfit and past their peak. Is it really worth picking them for squads ahead of Ehsan Adil or Sameen Gul?
The Head Coach's job is to pick a team for today. But the Chief Selector needs to build and develop a long-term squad with a stable core - and Misbah has done the precise opposite. But to be fair to him, the two jobs combine priorities which are not easily reconciled.
Pakistan will never have a tour with the luxury of this one - taking 29 players to England for 8 weeks.
This was the chance to blend the likes of Zeeshan Malik, Rohail Nazir, Zafar Gohar and Sajid Khan in with the core Test team to build a solid, stable squad.
Instead their positions have gone to men in their 30s who do the same job, but offer no long-term anything. Abid Ali. Sarfraz Ahmed. Kashif Bhatti. Iftikhar Ahmed. And Imran Khan and Sohail Khan and Fawad Alam.
So here are my simple questions to help Misbah to design a Test squad.
1. Which 4 batsmen are your core batsmen under 30 whom you can assume will still be in the team in 2025? Babar Azam and ?Imam. ?Sami Aslam?
2. Who is your overage batsman aged 32+ whom you will forcibly retire after one bad series? You can have Azhar or Shafiq or Abid - but only one of them.
3. Who is your veteran batsman aged 30-32 whom you wish to keep? Presumably Shan Masood, or you could have Haris Sohail. But not both.
4. What is the balance of your attack? You need 5 bowlers, but 3 have to be able to bat, of whom 2 need to bat well. This suggests that Shadab Khan and Zafar Gohar will be required, which suggests that Yasir Shah is on shaky ground.
5. Who are your top fast bowlers? Clearly Naseem Shah and Shaheen Shah Afridi. But they are aged ?19 and 20 - does this mean that you need to prioritise the reintegration of Ehsan Adil and Sameen Gul as senior but not geriatric team-mates to bowl the long overs to keep the youngsters fresh?
6. How do you create what you don't have? The desperate need is for a fast-bowling all-rounder at Number 8. But Faheem Ashraf isn't batting well enough, Amir Yamin is too old and Amad Butt isn't good enough with bat and ball. But you can't do without this role - you need to identify 2 guys and build up their batting and bowling with intensive coaching and total immersion with the Test squad.
Misbah's approach has been to combine veterans with rookies and ignore the balance of the squad or the stability of its core. But he has lost every away Test that he has played - just as he used to do as the captain.
Veterans and Kids only.
Veteran batsmen who never score runs, leaving 3 Number 11s to score the runs that the specialist batsmen cannot.
A bowling attack with no member aged between 21 and 29.
An army of back-up players on the wrong side of 30.
This is a highly unstable mix. And it is enfeebling what should be a really good team.
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