One year of dismal displays under Misbah-ul-Haq - time for him to go

[Markhor]

Regardless of the outcome of the 3rd ODI v Zimbabwe, to allow Zimbabwe to even come this close to victory is humiliating with all due respect to them.

Let me clear something up firstly. I am not a blind Misbah-ul-Haq critic. I remain deeply appreciative for how he rebuilt the team after the 2010 spot fixing scandal and taking Pakistan to #1 in Test rankings. However his coaching tenure is ruining his legacy.

For those who need a refresher, Misbah-ul-Haq was on the Cricket Committee determining coach Mickey Arthur’s future after the 2019 World Cup. After Mickey appeared to have secured a one year extension – he was sacked and Misbah, in a clear conflict of interest, succeeded him in a shambolic process where Misbah was virtually pre-selected. In addition, he was given the Chief Selector and Head Coach role at Islamabad United.

Let’s go through the chargesheet:

1) SELECTION - There is no rhyme or reason to his selections. He recalls Umar Akmal and Ahmed Shehzad for a T20 series vs Sri Lanka C despite their repeated failures at intl. level. They fail and he dumps them.

He selects 37 year old, unfit Mohammad Irfan who fails against Australia. He’s dumped. On the same tour, he decides it’s a good idea to debut two teenagers Naseem Shah and 5ft 7 Musa Khan in Test cricket despite scant FC experience. He recalls 33 year old Imran Khan who David Warner treated as gully bowler on the previous tour in 2016. Both Musa and Imran had diabolical QEA Trophy seasons.

Meanwhile his two pet projects Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq, possessing mediocre records since Misbah’s retirement, are undroppable in Tests with Azhar proving a clueless Test skipper as he was a clueless ODI skipper – Misbah okayed both decisions. Misbah’s seniority obsession doesn’t end there - he recalls Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik, who’ve had infinite chances, for a home series against a depleted Bangladesh when a youngster could’ve been groomed like Haider Ali.

He finally calls up Haider Ali but only debuts him in the 3rd T20 vs England, and benches him for the 1st ODI vs Zimbabwe. Abdullah Shafique is called up but is collecting splinters on the bench – why ? He should be playing QEA Trophy instead.

He fails to understand the necessity of developing young spinners with the 2023 WC being hosted in India. He selects Zafar Gohar and Usman Qadir vs Zimbabwe but benches both. He plays FOUR pacers on a Rawalpindi deck today and two part-time spinners. Again, why ? Why persist with Faheem Ashraf who averages 13 and 39 with bat and ball ?!

There are probably more examples but these are the most glaring.

2) MINDSET – Misbah is stuck in 1990s mindset of conserving wickets for 40 overs and accelerating at the end. Whereas the likes of England and Australia have two explosive openers, we insist on Imam’s “stability”.

3) RESULTS – We haven’t beaten any top side. We failed to win a single game vs Australia, and could only muster a 1-1 draw vs a reserve England team in a T20 series. We bottled the Manchester Test vs England from a winning position, failing to defend 277, and lost our 10 year unbeaten record vs England.

We now face another humiliation in New Zealand. We remain 7th in Tests, and dropped from 1st to 4th in T20s.

I’m not saying a new coach will cure Pakistan’s problems, we are far behind the top sides, but a coach needs to maximise the resources at his disposal which Misbah, an unproven coach who’s never even managed a domestic side, has failed to do.

 

[DeadlyVenom]

Absolutely agree with the above word for word.

 

[Rana]

I’m not even going to read the Essay op and say I agree 100%

 

[Shafi]

He is not going anywhere before 2023 means he will be there at least 3 more years.

 

[Aenigma]

I have a feeling that there's internal politics at work to try get Misbah out as well as nullifying his compensation clause in the contract. Hopefully he will be gone after (or ideally before) the NZ series

Do we know if he's still working with his department northen sui gas?

 

[hitthestump]

We probably need to start recording the humiliations and terrible decision making we've already suffered with Misbah as coach. It needs it's own dedicated thread.

 

[Markhor]

He is not going anywhere before 2023 means he will be there at least 3 more years.

I fear this match vs Zimbabwe means Misbah will recall Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Hafeez for "experience" factor. Might even recall Javed Miandad and Zaheer Abbas while he's at it.

 

[Khan12]

But according to some we are his haters and his the best thing to happen to Pakistan and some even started following Pakistan cricket due to him and will stop as soon as this beghairat is kicked out.

 

[DeadlyVenom]

Wahab made a 50 today with the bat but to give him 3 games at the age of 36 with an average of 35 against Zimbabwe is illogical. It genuinley served no purpose.

 

[coy0607]

Misbah has been horrible as a selector, and should never have been given so much power. He's had blunder after blunder (from bringing back players like Akmal, Shehzad, Irfan, IK Sr, to persisting with Asif Ali, Ifthikar, Asad, Azhar, Malik for so long)

But to blame him for the 3rd ODI is ridiculous. If anything, this Zim series is the most promising series Pak has played under Misbah when it comes to the future of Pak cricket.

Playing so many young players was fantastic - and I hope the selectors aren't discouraged by the slight hiccup in the 3rd ODI.

Question now is, are we going to see more of what we are seeing in the Zim series going forward, or does Misbah go back to his comfort zone and have a team filled 32+ year olds

I'd be okay to give him a little bit of leash just based on what we have seen in the Zim series.

 

[Khan12]

We probably need to start recording the humiliations and terrible decision making we've already suffered with Misbah as coach. It needs it's own dedicated thread.

The thread will crash.

 

[Markhor]

Misbah has been horrible as a selector, and should never have been given so much power. He's had blunder after blunder (from bringing back players like Akmal, Shehzad, Irfan, IK Sr, to persisting with Asif Ali, Ifthikar, Asad, Azhar, Malik for so long)

But to blame him for the 3rd ODI is ridiculous. If anything, this Zim series is the most promising series Pak has played under Misbah when it comes to the future of Pak cricket.

Playing so many young players was fantastic - and I hope the selectors aren't discouraged by the slight hiccup in the 3rd ODI.

Question now is, are we going to see more of what we are seeing in the Zim series going forward, or does Misbah go back to his comfort zone and have a team filled 32+ year olds

I'd be okay to give him a little bit of leash just based on what we have seen in the Zim series.

Playing four pacers and two part-time spinners is inexcusable though. We are playing 2023 WC in India yet Zafar Gohar and Usman Qadir are carrying drinks.

 

[hitthestump]

But to blame him for the 3rd ODI is ridiculous. If anything, this Zim series is the most promising series Pak has played under Misbah when it comes to the future of Pak cricket.

The buck has to stop somewhere i'm afraid. I agree you don't blame 20 year old Musa Khan for this loss. But somebody selected him. Somebody played Wahab in all 3 games. Somebody gave Iftikhar the 5th bowler role.

Someone has to take responsibility, and the only choice is Misbah. Again.

 

[hitthestump]

Playing four pacers and two part-time spinners is inexcusable though. We are playing 2023 WC in India yet Zafar Gohar and Usman Qadir are carrying drinks.

Incredible how Misbah misses even the easiest tap ins as a coach. As we saw time and time again in England, he is literally just making it up as he goes along.

 

[moghul]

If that takes IK to go too, I'm OK with that

 

[Abdullah719]

Imagine getting bowled out for 2 against Zimbabwe

OK it’s a Super Over but still

 

[Usman Chadda]

This should be the end of the road for Misbah. There are school teams in Australia, England, India and New Zealand that would beat the living daylights out of this Zimbabwe team.

And we have been outplayed in 2/3 games by them.

Complete embarrassment. Should cancel the upcoming tours against half decent sides, as we cannot hope to even compete

 

[ask_analyse_act]

His mission is to take Pakistan back to no.9 ranking and play the WC qualifiers

 

[ask_analyse_act]

Lol look at fielding to save 2 runs.

 

[El Generico]

its not even about the loss, the decisions taken by Misbah today were brainless. Why sent out Khushdil and Iftikhar when you have Haider and Zaman in the team?

 

[aloo paratha]

Team selection has been abysmal all series. Who plays 4 pacers and no specialist spinner in the subcontinent? This decision was even worse than Mickey's decision to go with 3 pacers in a UAE test.

 

[Belawal2014]

That's what you get when you appoint someone to Head Coach and Chief selector with No, Nada, Nil, zerooooooooo coaching experience.

 

[Mamoon]

Look we can blame Misbah all we want, but the time has come for Pakistani fans to finally make peace with the fact that we are absolutely rubbish.

Misbah might be a terrible coach, but he is the only one holding this team back.

The delusional fans who shot youngsters youngsters all the time need to sit down. These youngsters are rubbish as well and no better than the seniors that they are replacing.

That is why when the squads were announced and the delusional folks were shocked that Misbah didn’t pick youngsters in their diapers,

I told everyone that Misbah is well aware of their capabilities and since Zimbabwe is one of the very, very few teams that we have the ability to beat, Misbah would be foolish to risk losing with youngsters.

Looking at how Musa and Khushdil bowled and batted today, one can safely say that if we picked Amir and Hafeez, we would have swept the series.

So please don’t do youngsters youngsters all the time or you will risk losing the few matches that you win.

 

[Minnowbasher]

#misbahout
Enough is enough
He has finished Pakistan cricket entirely
We are minnows now

 

[Colorblind Genius]

Regardless of the outcome of the 3rd ODI v Zimbabwe, to allow Zimbabwe to even come this close to victory is humiliating with all due respect to them.

Let me clear something up firstly. I am not a blind Misbah-ul-Haq critic. I remain deeply appreciative for how he rebuilt the team after the 2010 spot fixing scandal and taking Pakistan to #1 in Test rankings. However his coaching tenure is ruining his legacy.

For those who need a refresher, Misbah-ul-Haq was on the Cricket Committee determining coach Mickey Arthur’s future after the 2019 World Cup. After Mickey appeared to have secured a one year extension – he was sacked and Misbah, in a clear conflict of interest, succeeded him in a shambolic process where Misbah was virtually pre-selected. In addition, he was given the Chief Selector and Head Coach role at Islamabad United.

Let’s go through the chargesheet:

1) SELECTION - There is no rhyme or reason to his selections. He recalls Umar Akmal and Ahmed Shehzad for a T20 series vs Sri Lanka C despite their repeated failures at intl. level. They fail and he dumps them.

He selects 37 year old, unfit Mohammad Irfan who fails against Australia. He’s dumped. On the same tour, he decides it’s a good idea to debut two teenagers Naseem Shah and 5ft 7 Musa Khan in Test cricket despite scant FC experience. He recalls 33 year old Imran Khan who David Warner treated as gully bowler on the previous tour in 2016. Both Musa and Imran had diabolical QEA Trophy seasons.

Meanwhile his two pet projects Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq, possessing mediocre records since Misbah’s retirement, are undroppable in Tests with Azhar proving a clueless Test skipper as he was a clueless ODI skipper – Misbah okayed both decisions. Misbah’s seniority obsession doesn’t end there - he recalls Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik, who’ve had infinite chances, for a home series against a depleted Bangladesh when a youngster could’ve been groomed like Haider Ali.

He finally calls up Haider Ali but only debuts him in the 3rd T20 vs England, and benches him for the 1st ODI vs Zimbabwe. Abdullah Shafique is called up but is collecting splinters on the bench – why ? He should be playing QEA Trophy instead.

He fails to understand the necessity of developing young spinners with the 2023 WC being hosted in India. He selects Zafar Gohar and Usman Qadir vs Zimbabwe but benches both. He plays FOUR pacers on a Rawalpindi deck today and two part-time spinners. Again, why ? Why persist with Faheem Ashraf who averages 13 and 39 with bat and ball ?!

There are probably more examples but these are the most glaring.

2) MINDSET – Misbah is stuck in 1990s mindset of conserving wickets for 40 overs and accelerating at the end. Whereas the likes of England and Australia have two explosive openers, we insist on Imam’s “stability”.

3) RESULTS – We haven’t beaten any top side. We failed to win a single game vs Australia, and could only muster a 1-1 draw vs a reserve England team in a T20 series. We bottled the Manchester Test vs England from a winning position, failing to defend 277, and lost our 10 year unbeaten record vs England.

We now face another humiliation in New Zealand. We remain 7th in Tests, and dropped from 1st to 4th in T20s.

I’m not saying a new coach will cure Pakistan’s problems, we are far behind the top sides, but a coach needs to maximise the resources at his disposal which Misbah, an unproven coach who’s never even managed a domestic side, has failed to do.

Wait till he gives a presser, saying, “I am satisfied with the results. The team is under a rebuilding process, and I need more time”.

While Waqar will keep defending Musa’s bowling with the same sentiments.

I don’t think Misbah and Waqar are going anywhere. We have AT LEAST three more years to bare this torture.

 

[RickyG]

This think-tank is a complete joke. The team selection was poor to begin with but there's literally no brain power being used to figure out our ODI gameplans.

Haider Ali should be opening. He is the next big batting hope so send him where he has batted his whole life and where he can bat freely.

Musa Khan. Enough said. There's literally nothing about his bowling that makes you think "oh yea he could be great."

The lack of spinners. Where is Shadab Khan? Dropped when his batting seemed to be coming together. Both Shadab and Imad are far far better than Ifti chacha.

Khushdil, Ifti and Fakhar for super over? The most gifted hitter on your team is Haider. Your best batsman is Babar. And you send 3 guys who couldn't middle a single delivery.

There is a decent core of cricketers there between Babar, Haider, Imad, Shadab, Shaheen, Hasnain, Wahab etc. But this management and think tank has let them down and will continue to do so.

 

[saeed5646]

Ok if pretend to be very generous misbah has bad luck curse which Pakistan cannot afford

 

[90MPH]

I was disgusted when Pak sacked Micky Arthur - so much so I stoppped watching them for a good 6 months.

What really got me was then the selection of Misbah as coach, on what basis ? Where was his record that he would be a good coach and take Pak to the next level ??

It was a horrendous decision and now we see it from inconsistent selections and performances. An embarrassing defeat to a minnow team was on the cards.

Misbah was never the right choice to begin with but I bet the gutter Pak media will not hold him to account in the same way they did with Micky Arthur.

 

[RickyG]

Look we can blame Misbah all we want, but the time has come for Pakistani fans to finally make peace with the fact that we are absolutely rubbish.

Misbah might be a terrible coach, but he is the only one holding this team back.

The delusional fans who shot youngsters youngsters all the time need to sit down. These youngsters are rubbish as well and no better than the seniors that they are replacing.

That is why when the squads were announced and the delusional folks were shocked that Misbah didn’t pick youngsters in their diapers,

I told everyone that Misbah is well aware of their capabilities and since Zimbabwe is one of the very, very few teams that we have the ability to beat, Misbah would be foolish to risk losing with youngsters.

Looking at how Musa and Khushdil bowled and batted today, one can safely say that if we picked Amir and Hafeez, we would have swept the series.

So please don’t do youngsters youngsters all the time or you will risk losing the few matches that you win.

Misbah is the problem. He picks players based on favoritism. He is as defensive as they come. He is clueless when it comes to formulating game plans.

The kicker is that the few talented guys we do have (Babar, Hasnain, Haider etc) he is on his way to destroying them as well.

Misbah isn't the only problem. He is the single biggest problem.

 

[Gullycricket]

This is the norm now. I remember watching PCT under Mickey. It was so exciting. It felt we are on our way up. We challenged SA, Eng, Aus in their own den. You see a pattern. We are losing to Zimababwe, losing in England everywhere we used to be good. The selections have been pathetic. We are so scared of trying youngsters for the fear of losing. And we are still losing. Playing Abid Ali in ODI's, ruining Fakhar, giving too few matches to Haider...list goes on. Point is Misbah must pay for this. Sack him.Enough of him
#bringbackMickey

 

[nextover666666]

Misbah has to go it's that simple he is not a good coach or selector

Loved him as a player but he is not fit for this role

In regards to people saying we're not good enough if you keep selecting the wrong players and keep doing dumb tactics than of course we're not gonna be good enough


Don't get me wrong even if Pakistan selects the best team possible we will not be a number 1 team but if we select players on merit for the correct format and we plan and do our homework on opponents than believe me Pakistan can have good results


If we continue this way than the results will be the same we will always be due for and upset loss and we will continue having trouble to compete with top teams

 

[Bigboii]

[MENTION=53290]Markhor[/MENTION] you were way to nice in your op

As soon as we lost the match I wanted to open a thread named "collective lanat e kabira at Misbah"

 

[Aenigma]

It's time we apply pressure to get rid of him. #MisbahOut on twitter needs to be trending!

 

[aloo paratha]

This is the norm now. I remember watching PCT under Mickey. It was so exciting. It felt we are on our way up. We challenged SA, Eng, Aus in their own den. You see a pattern. We are losing to Zimababwe, losing in England everywhere we used to be good. The selections have been pathetic. We are so scared of trying youngsters for the fear of losing. And we are still losing. Playing Abid Ali in ODI's, ruining Fakhar, giving too few matches to Haider...list goes on. Point is Misbah must pay for this. Sack him.Enough of him
#bringbackMickey

I'm no Misbah fan but can we stop living in false realities? We lost 4-1 in Australia and 4-0 in England.

 

[Bigboii]

I'm no Misbah fan but can we stop living in false realities? We lost 4-1 in Australia and 4-0 in England.

Oh yeah not saying we were a world class team

We were a middle tier team but under him we are actually going down

We are losing to zim, Sri Lanka type teams at home

 

[Smudger]

Someone needs to stop El-Padrino of Pakistan Cricket

I am seriously never been more dissapointed. Misbah is the worst thing to happen to Pakistan cricket. He is such a diagrace. He has selected several players who were not even good enough to play domestic cricket let alone international cricket. I swear he will destroy Ind and Eng if he coaches them. He has
ZERO intellect and knows zilch about identifying talent. I mean who sane man will select Rafatullah and Imran Khan junior. Someone will have to somehow sack Misbah. This guy does not deserve to coach a domestic team let alone an international team. On top of everything he is probably the most incompetent person to hold a coaching position on the PLANET at the minute. He straight away after retiring got a coaching gig Pak team without having any qualification or experience whatsoever

 

[Colorblind Genius]

Look we can blame Misbah all we want, but the time has come for Pakistani fans to finally make peace with the fact that we are absolutely rubbish.

Misbah might be a terrible coach, but he is the only one holding this team back.

The delusional fans who shot youngsters youngsters all the time need to sit down. These youngsters are rubbish as well and no better than the seniors that they are replacing.

That is why when the squads were announced and the delusional folks were shocked that Misbah didn’t pick youngsters in their diapers,

I told everyone that Misbah is well aware of their capabilities and since Zimbabwe is one of the very, very few teams that we have the ability to beat, Misbah would be foolish to risk losing with youngsters.

Looking at how Musa and Khushdil bowled and batted today, one can safely say that if we picked Amir and Hafeez, we would have swept the series.

So please don’t do youngsters youngsters all the time or you will risk losing the few matches that you win.

Yeah but could he have sent in Wahab and Baber to open the super over?
What’s the logic of sending in chaacha Ifti and Khushdil?

I mean, this was more than atrocious of a decision that defies all logic.

 

[aloo paratha]

Oh yeah not saying we were a world class team

We were a middle tier team but under him we are actually going down

We are losing to zim, Sri Lanka type teams at home

The poster was saying we challenged England and Australia in their own den. No we didn't.

 

[Gullycricket]

I'm no Misbah fan but can we stop living in false realities? We lost 4-1 in Australia and 4-0 in England.

We were not losing to Zimababwe. We drew Tests in England, gave tough fight to SA in SA. In England even in losing we managed to score 300+ most times. I am saying we were getting there. Today i dont feel so

 

[Markhor]

This is the norm now. I remember watching PCT under Mickey. It was so exciting. It felt we are on our way up. We challenged SA, Eng, Aus in their own den. You see a pattern. We are losing to Zimababwe, losing in England everywhere we used to be good. The selections have been pathetic. We are so scared of trying youngsters for the fear of losing. And we are still losing. Playing Abid Ali in ODI's, ruining Fakhar, giving too few matches to Haider...list goes on. Point is Misbah must pay for this. Sack him.Enough of him
#bringbackMickey

Well said but PCB mafia and lifafa journalists had a grudge against Mickey and Misbah stabbed him in the back.

At least under Mickey even if results weren't always good he was developing youngsters and a more positive style of play. Look at the last four matches of 2019 World Cup.

 

[Khan12]

I'm no Misbah fan but can we stop living in false realities? We lost 4-1 in Australia and 4-0 in England.

We used to smash the likes of Zimbabwe comfortably till the beghairat person came along.

 

[Third Man]

But according to some we are his haters and his the best thing to happen to Pakistan and some even started following Pakistan cricket due to him and will stop as soon as this beghairat is kicked out.

Don't know about that, but I'm seriously considering not watching until this clown is removed. I won't consider it my team as long as this absolutely shameless, pathetic, selfish, cowardly, and ignorant person is at the helm.

 

[aloo paratha]

We were not losing to Zimababwe. We drew Tests in England, gave tough fight to SA in SA. In England even in losing we managed to score 300+ most times. I am saying we were getting there. Today i dont feel so

We also lost test series to SL and NZ. I think we can agree that Misbah is abysmal for limited overs cricket, and Mickey was abysmal for test cricket.

 

[IM NOT YOU]

if you put 100 random cricket fantasy players in a room (not professional analysts, just average fantasy players), most likely over 80 to 90 would send in haider ali and babar azam as the 2 guys to start the super over and then khushdil as the 1 down.

i dont even think 2 of the 100 would have iftikhar ahmed as even a top 4 candidate for the super over, let alone to face the first ball.

that alone tells us all misbah is not informed, not prepared, and not qualified to coach this team

 

[BunnyRabbit]

Even though I have been a staunch Misbah supporter for over a decade, but coaching is not his thing.

Should be sacked. Steve Rhodes, Ray Jennings, Paul Nixon, Thilana Kandamby would be way better options than him.

 

[Gullycricket]

We also lost test series to SL and NZ. I think we can agree that Misbah is abysmal for limited overs cricket, and Mickey was abysmal for test cricket.

Too early. Wait and watch under Misbah we may lose test series against Zim too

 

[Third Man]

We were not losing to Zimababwe. We drew Tests in England, gave tough fight to SA in SA. In England even in losing we managed to score 300+ most times. I am saying we were getting there. Today i dont feel so

Exactly! We weren't world-beaters, but I felt like at least in LOIs, we were building a solid team that almost always competed, irrespective of the results.

 

[Syed1]

if you put 100 random cricket fantasy players in a room (not professional analysts, just average fantasy players), most likely over 80 to 90 would send in haider ali and babar azam as the 2 guys to start the super over and then khushdil as the 1 down.

i dont even think 2 of the 100 would have iftikhar ahmed as even a top 4 candidate for the super over, let alone to face the first ball.

that alone tells us all misbah is not informed, not prepared, and not qualified to coach this team

Funnily Ifti was a horrendous choice, the other guy Fakhar was also a horrible choice as well. Playing his first match of the series and hardly any runs under his belt.

 

[Asif321]

He lost the test vs zimbabwe and today he managed to lose a ODi vs them that too at home .

 

[DandyFellow]

I am pretty sure that Misbah will say that he gave youngsters the chance hence we lost the game but the truth is that his selection was totally wrong. First of all he went with 4 pacers instead of 3 and decided to play Iftikhar as the 5th bowler. In terms of teams balance, only one of Khushdil and Iftikhar deserved to play and should have been replaced by Shadab or Imad. Moreover, one of the pacers i.e Musa Khan could have been replaced with Zafar Gohar if Imad was not to be played. One of the changes would have balanced the team a bit. The batting line up was another question mark with Shaheen sent above Musa. Another important thing is either play Haider in the first 3 slots or play him at No. 5. This would mean Rizwan comes at 4 if Babar at 3. What it does is that it provides Haider with a clear role to play the middle overs and build the innings at a higher strike rate. Also even if Rizwan fails after facing 20 to 30 deliveries then it gives Haider to come in after the new ball is done.

 

[Ahson8]

Look we can blame Misbah all we want, but the time has come for Pakistani fans to finally make peace with the fact that we are absolutely rubbish.

Misbah might be a terrible coach, but he is the only one holding this team back.

The delusional fans who shot youngsters youngsters all the time need to sit down. These youngsters are rubbish as well and no better than the seniors that they are replacing.

That is why when the squads were announced and the delusional folks were shocked that Misbah didn’t pick youngsters in their diapers,

I told everyone that Misbah is well aware of their capabilities and since Zimbabwe is one of the very, very few teams that we have the ability to beat, Misbah would be foolish to risk losing with youngsters.

Looking at how Musa and Khushdil bowled and batted today, one can safely say that if we picked Amir and Hafeez, we would have swept the series.

So please don’t do youngsters youngsters all the time or you will risk losing the few matches that you win.

Again this rubbish. Atleast select the right youngsters.

Musa averages 40 in List A games.

We played without a spinner today.

 

[Mamoon]

Yeah but could he have sent in Wahab and Baber to open the super over?
What’s the logic of sending in chaacha Ifti and Khushdil?

I mean, this was more than atrocious of a decision that defies all logic.

The problem is that as far as Misbah is concerned, there is no winning from Pakistan fans.

If he would have sent Wahab and he would have bottled it, the same fans would be bashing him for the brainless decision of sending a tail-ender hack like Wahab in a Super-Over just because he played a good innings earlier.

They would then argue that we should have sent in Khushdil who is supposedly the best power-hitter in Pakistan and tailor-made for Super-Overs.

So there is no winning from Pakistan fans who have convinced themselves that Misbah stands between this team and glory.

 

[Gullycricket]

Look we can blame Misbah all we want, but the time has come for Pakistani fans to finally make peace with the fact that we are absolutely rubbish.

Misbah might be a terrible coach, but he is the only one holding this team back.

The delusional fans who shot youngsters youngsters all the time need to sit down. These youngsters are rubbish as well and no better than the seniors that they are replacing.

That is why when the squads were announced and the delusional folks were shocked that Misbah didn’t pick youngsters in their diapers,

I told everyone that Misbah is well aware of their capabilities and since Zimbabwe is one of the very, very few teams that we have the ability to beat, Misbah would be foolish to risk losing with youngsters.

Looking at how Musa and Khushdil bowled and batted today, one can safely say that if we picked Amir and Hafeez, we would have swept the series.

So please don’t do youngsters youngsters all the time or you will risk losing the few matches that you win.

Lol at Hafeez. Hafeez would chicken out in pressure situations. Remember Wc 19 match against WI.

 

[Mamoon]

Again this rubbish. Atleast select the right youngsters.

Musa averages 40 in List A games.

We played without a spinner today.

Whoever fails is the wrong youngster and whoever isn’t picked is the right youngster.

If Khushdil wasn’t picked then he would have been advertised as the savior because he would have murdered these Zimbabwean trundles with his brutal power-hitting.

 

[zain7077]

The problem is that as far as Misbah is concerned, there is no winning from Pakistan fans.

If he would have sent Wahab and he would have bottled it, the same fans would be bashing him for the brainless decision of sending a tail-ender hack like Wahab in a Super-Over just because he played a good innings earlier.

They would then argue that we should have sent in Khushdil who is supposedly the best power-hitter in Pakistan and tailor-made for Super-Overs.

So there is no winning from Pakistan fans who have convinced themselves that Misbah stands between this team and glory.

Do you really think young players like Haider, Abdullah, Zafar or evening Shaheen are rubbish?

 

[Mamoon]

Lol at Hafeez. Hafeez would chicken out in pressure situations. Remember Wc 19 match against WI.

Yeah I am glad we have tigers in pressure situations now. Saw them today.

 

[Mamoon]

Do you really think young players like Haider, Abdullah, Zafar or evening Shaheen are rubbish?

Shaheen is good. He is not really a youngster anymore though, he has been a fixture in the team for a while now and is reasonably experienced.

Haider has good potential but overall, we need to accept that 90% of the young players coming through will prove to be average.

 

[Zaz]

Every games theres 2-3 awful selection decisions he makes Its completely baffling

No spinner tried in this series at all and he then sends in iftikhar inexplicably in the super over the haider whos looked a million dollars boundary hitting this series and ifti wallops the first balls down a fielders throat to start an awful super over

His preference for mediocre older players is utterly baffling

 

[mon858]

The poster was saying we challenged England and Australia in their own den. No we didn't.

we drew test series against england.

we beat world cup winning england in odi world cup.

we scored 350+ multiple times against england in england.

yes we didn't make semis due to one horrible collapse that happens with pakistan from time to time regardless of coach/selector/team and also missed out to due to rain impacted games.

however, overall, we were much much better white ball team in both t20 and odi and things were starting to look much more on the rise vs as bad as they stand ever since Misbah has taken over.

 

[ahmedzee]

His mission is to take Pakistan back to no.9 ranking and play the WC qualifiers

That's where Pakistan was when Misbah the captain retired from ODIs.

 

[Ahson8]

Whoever fails is the wrong youngster and whoever isn’t picked is the right youngster.

If Khushdil wasn’t picked then he would have been advertised as the savior because he would have murdered these Zimbabwean trundles with his brutal power-hitting.

Khushdil has got good stats so got picked on merit, you can't say the same for Musa.

 

[Syed1]

Not sure why knives are out against Khushdil, he was sent into bat at 7 and still played a nice cameo. You lot were expecting him to hit a match winning 70* on debut?


If anything the early selection of Haider Ali should be questioned. He has alot of developing to do before he becomes an international level batsman.

 

[nextover666666]

Imad should have played this game if you were going to bench him they should have tried another spinner in this case Usman Qadir

Team selection makes no sense but they wanted to save itftikhar and show he is a true allarounder

 

[Muddaser]

This is the guy who choked twice against India in the first T20 WC.

Couldn't score 1 off 3 in the group stage then played a daft scoop needing 6 off 4 in the final.

Lets not forget the incident where he hopped over the ball to avoid it only to get runout.

This is our coach.

 

[deep82]

It would be fun if Misbah continues till 2023.

Imagine the fireworks on PP for three years.

 

[MRSN]

This guy is just acting as a coach. He has zero skills and decision making required for this job. His fakeness can't get him hiding always. He was bound to be exposed.

 

[coy0607]

Playing four pacers and two part-time spinners is inexcusable though. We are playing 2023 WC in India yet Zafar Gohar and Usman Qadir are carrying drinks.

The buck has to stop somewhere i'm afraid. I agree you don't blame 20 year old Musa Khan for this loss. But somebody selected him. Somebody played Wahab in all 3 games. Somebody gave Iftikhar the 5th bowler role.

Someone has to take responsibility, and the only choice is Misbah. Again.

Definitely agree there were mistakes with selection - Wahab (despite the heroics with the bat) is a known quantity, someone who has never been consistent and isn't getting any better at age 35. Ifthikar is an even bigger blunder, he has shown no signs of being International quality but is somehow a staple in ODI and T20 squads

Despite that, I think the positive selections in this series outweigh the negatives. Especially when you consider the teams that were playing in the series vs SL and Bangladesh last year

In short, Misbah is a bad selector but he's just selected the most promising team of his tenure - so don't think now is the time to replace him.

 

[Arsal_AK]

Not sure why knives are out against Khushdil, he was sent into bat at 7 and still played a nice cameo. You lot were expecting him to hit a match winning 70* on debut?


If anything the early selection of Haider Ali should be questioned. He has alot of developing to do before he becomes an international level batsman.

Khushdil is being questioned for his insistence on slogging everything to the legside. Skied the first one, a short one outside off, toward long on when when he could have played it over point.

Then the second one wide outside off again, slogs again to the legside, gets an inside edge onto the stumps. This could have easily been punched through covers, lofted over extra or even long off.

Zimbabwe worked him out in one game. I shudder to think what will happen against decent oppositions.

Haider can play atleast three shots on each of those balls. There in lies the difference. If we had sent him and Babar out in the super over, we would have won this match.

On Haider, why? Just because he failed one match. He will make these mistakes. Everyone does, even the best of the lot.

It's been one game. How about we start on this after a few series. He is not going anywhere and rightfully so.

I do agree that he needs some work, but he is only 20. Will get better with time and the weaknesses are not that big that warrant sending him back to the domestic circuit. He is not getting better there. FC he has to play and improve his game there but no one is campaigning for his test spot yet.

 

[shamaan]

I am seriously never been more dissapointed. Misbah is the worst thing to happen to Pakistan cricket. He is such a diagrace. He has selected several players who were not even good enough to play domestic cricket let alone international cricket. I swear he will destroy Ind and Eng if he coaches them. He has
ZERO intellect and knows zilch about identifying talent. I mean who sane man will select Rafatullah and Imran Khan junior. Someone will have to somehow sack Misbah. This guy does not deserve to coach a domestic team let alone an international team. On top of everything he is probably the most incompetent person to hold a coaching position on the PLANET at the minute. He straight away after retiring got a coaching gig Pak team without having any qualification or experience whatsoever

I reakon I have more qualifications compared to him and more experience coaching teams.the only person who can sack him is the great imran khan or wasim akram

 

[RickyG]

Not sure why knives are out against Khushdil, he was sent into bat at 7 and still played a nice cameo. You lot were expecting him to hit a match winning 70* on debut?


If anything the early selection of Haider Ali should be questioned. He has alot of developing to do before he becomes an international level batsman.

Yes he was playing as a batsman. What else would you expect from?

Haider Ali is so much better than Khushdil that they aren't even comparable. Let's see who is still around in 5 years.

 

[Saj]

It's the scared, defensive and ultra-cautious brand of cricket that Pakistan is playing that is the concern. It's like watching ODI cricket in the 1990s, save wickets and then try to blast it in the last 10 overs if you have wickets in hand.

Players seem to be reluctant to play with any freedom, the plans are confusing, the team selections strange, the team combinations puzzling.

Where are we heading.

 

[Hasan123]

We are a poor team but Misbah needs to go due to his poor decision making and his lack of vision for the team.

A better coach would slightly improve our chances against better teams compared to Misbah but putting a new coach in doesn't mean we will compete at the top of the rankings.

 

[kingusama92]

Spot on Markhor.

The lack of planning for 2023 is disturbing.

By now there should be a plan in place with regards to roles (i.e. two power hitters at the top, Babar, etc.) and then you start looking for pieces to fit into those positions in the coming years. Just like England did.

In fact, this plan should have been laid out on day one when he was hired.

Winning or losing doesn't matter as long as there's a method to the madness. Even if you find 1 new player per series, you are trending in the right direction for 2023. By then, you'll have a complete lineup of guys in the right positions.

Instead, Misbah is just putting together random XIs and trying to save his job. Even more disturbing is that it's coming from a guy that has an MBA.

 

[Ellipsism]

Not sure why knives are out against Khushdil, he was sent into bat at 7 and still played a nice cameo. You lot were expecting him to hit a match winning 70* on debut?


If anything the early selection of Haider Ali should be questioned. He has alot of developing to do before he becomes an international level batsman.

He’s still a hack. A blind man can see that he won’t work against better sides.

 

[IMMY69]

It's the scared, defensive and ultra-cautious brand of cricket that Pakistan is playing that is the concern. It's like watching ODI cricket in the 1990s, save wickets and then try to blast it in the last 10 overs if you have wickets in hand.

Players seem to be reluctant to play with any freedom, the plans are confusing, the team selections strange, the team combinations puzzling.

Where are we heading.

Where are we heading? Down the drain.

I was shocked when I turned YouTube on to see Ifti chacha batting in the super over.
Before that, no specialist spinner...
I mean seriously?

 

[IMMY69]

We are a poor team but Misbah needs to go due to his poor decision making and his lack of vision for the team.

A better coach would slightly improve our chances against better teams compared to Misbah but putting a new coach in doesn't mean we will compete at the top of the rankings.

I disagree.
We have the players just lack the coach/management to select the right combination and implement the correct plans.

 

[Ellipsism]

Why we aren’t picking a spinner is absolutely baffling. We went to the last T20 WC without a proper spinner and got humiliated when we played 4 pacers on a square turner against India. You have the next ODI WC in India as well, where a full time spinner is absolutely necessary. You’d think this is the perfect opportunity to blood in Zafar or Qadir but instead we play 3.5 fast bowlers against the Zimboks who have traditionally struggled against spinners as well.

 

[shamaan]

Misbah lacks alot of things much match planning,match awareness,selecting the right team,wrong philosophy,

 

[Mueez]

He really needs to get sacked.

Enough of his mediocre performances...

 

[PakPremi]

I disagree.
We have the players just lack the coach/management to select the right combination and implement the correct plans.

I whole heartedly agree with you. We have players but they are not given opportunities even at domestic level favouritism decides who plays, who bats at what position(Nawaz batting ahead of Rohail N for instance). The only reason some new players were tried this series was because Misbah has been coping criticism for not playing youngsters. When he does select a new player he also weakens the team by selecting TTFs like Iftikhar and Fahim. Why we do not play proper spinners is beyond me especially when Shadab is not available. Zafar G, Zahid M, and Usman Q all would do much better job. Zimbabwe of all teams were troubling Pakistan with spinners, but our coach and captain are hell bent on playing 4 pacers. Babar did not even try to atleast try Khushdil or Falhar when Musa and Ifti were proving ineffective.