Pakistan's worst ever Test captain?

[Amjid Javed]

Having watched the pakistan team play since 1987 there has been a mix bag when it comes to the test captaincy. Some have taken the responsibility on their shoulders and done a great job other and others have been worse than you would see at club cricket level.

Through out pakistans entire cricketing history we have had some talented teams lead by good captains. We have also some captains get the best possible output from very limited talented teams.

But who on the flip side has been pakistans worst TEST CAPTAIN. Here are a few

Moin khan - i will never forget the negative and poor team selections during series vs england in 2000. playing just 2 seamers in each test (one of those being Abdul Razzaq). Then banking on an assortment of spinners
Musthtaq ahmed (past his sell by date)
qasir abbas / shahid afridi (not test match spinners)
danish kaneria (not ready for test cricket at the time)

spin favoured over pace, negative batting all series and even worse in field. Gutless surrender in karachi will never been forgotten.

Amir sohail, rameez Raja, Azhar Ali all short stints as test skippers all stick in the mind as poor as well.

Now we have Babar Azam, tactically inept. Doesnt have a pair of balls to drop certain players from the team and move forward. Captaincy in field is negative and unimaginative, doesnt lead from front either.

So who from all pakistan captains uve seen is the worst ever in TESTs?

 

[Rana]

He should never have accepted the role

 

[The_KING]

He is too timid a character to be a captain..

 

[ads101]

People who have had success as domestic captains should only be given captaincy. Captaincy is a skill, you don't just give it to the best player and hope for the best.

 

[shaz619]

People who have had success as domestic captains should only be given captaincy. Captaincy is a skill, you don't just give it to the best player and hope for the best.

You can’t pick specialist captains in the team, unfortunately given the dynamics of Pakistan cricket the first and foremost requirement is to be able to hold your place in the team, Babar is an automatic pick in the Test side regardless of his form and he is someone they want to back with the longterm outlook in mind.

There are maybe two other options, but the additional burden on them wont go away either

 

[PakPremi]

Too early to judge his captaincy but Mohd Yusuf and Ramiz probably were the worst captains

 

[greatest]

Throughout Pakistan's history the most successful captains have been players with vibrant personality and a dictator like attitude like Imran and Kardar.
There is no one in the current lot who deserves to be the captain.

 

[hitthestump]

Lol at all the pressure Babar is under.

Pakistan fans can't see that the demise of our cricket team is entirely self inflicted.

Anyone fancy backing your best player, supporting him to improve? Why is it knives out at every opportunity and how has that been working for us?

 

[ssuhaide]

Throughout Pakistan's history the most successful captains have been players with vibrant personality and a dictator like attitude like Imran and Kardar.
There is no one in the current lot who deserves to be the captain.

Waqar Younis will go down as one of the worst captains ever.

I'd say the scorecard below is one of the all time worst performances in tests for a Pakistan team.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series...lia-vs-pakistan-2nd-test-64002/full-scorecard

Although I think people are overplaying the captaincy thing, a good captain will not fix how bad Pakistan cricket is.

 

[Loralai]

The harsh truth is that the majority of our captains have been very poor. Aside from Kardar, Mushtaq Mohammad, Majid and Imran,, we have never had great captains. Miandad was also a good tactician but not a regular skipper. Wasim Akram had the ability and nous to be an excellent skipper but unfortunately the team found itself embroiled in other messes at that time.

 

[Major]

Azhar was not a bad captain, he was a good one... The issue with you lot is you want someone flashy to lead.

You got it, and now enjoy the show.

Imran Khan removed azhar and had him replaced with Babar and all you guys enjoyed it

 

[shah_1]

Well deserved humiliation for Babar azam

 

[adzzy786]

Azhar was not a bad captain, he was a good one... The issue with you lot is you want someone flashy to lead.

You got it, and now enjoy the show.

Imran Khan removed azhar and had him replaced with Babar and all you guys enjoyed it

The guy who was averaging 19 for the last 3 years. Doesn’t deserve to be in the team on Merit. Yeah let’s keep him captain

 

[Major]

The guy who was averaging 19 for the last 3 years. Doesn’t deserve to be in the team on Merit. Yeah let’s keep him captain

The guy has scored 150 against australia now.

There is a difference between batting and captaincy.

 

[Savak]

Azhar was not a bad captain, he was a good one... The issue with you lot is you want someone flashy to lead.

You got it, and now enjoy the show.

Imran Khan removed azhar and had him replaced with Babar and all you guys enjoyed it

How was Azhar Ali a good captain?

 

[Amjid Javed]

Too early to judge his captaincy but Mohd Yusuf and Ramiz probably were the worst captains

Yousuf in Australia was pathetic. Rameez bowling mo Zahid into the ground in SL. Bad memories.

 

[greatest]

Babar was appointed captain because he was our Kohli. Same with Sarfaraz, he was our Dhoni. India play an off spinner and a left armer in Ashwin and Jadoo...we play Sajid and Nauman. We follow our neighbors. Just kidding!

 

[Major]

How was Azhar Ali a good captain?

His field placement, his strategies were good.

Atleast not like babar who is about to lose a test at home

 

[Titan24]

People who have had success as domestic captains should only be given captaincy. Captaincy is a skill, you don't just give it to the best player and hope for the best.

Yes, captaincy is also developed within the system like other cricketing skills but the issue is that its not a skill which alone can get you selected. At the same time when player is selected in the national team who is considered a future pillar he is usually in early 20s and by the time his chance comes to captain the team he doesn't have much development in that aspect from domestic cricket. That is why the period of being vice captain becomes extremely important to learn and Babar didn't get that much and only little period he had as VC was with Sarfaraz who was clearly past his prime.

None of the players in Pakistan team who are in late 20s or early 30s have much captaincy experience in red ball cricket at domestic level. Hassan Ali did really well with CP in 2020 QAE as Captain while Rizwan mostly has with Pakistan A and that's about it.

Sometimes even the guys who have domestic experience (Like Tim Paine) are not exactly able to replicate it upto the same level in international cricket if they are not an international quality player themselves when they take up the role.

 

[Kianig89]

He had his cojones test in that Aus T20 WC SF but his iffy captaincy handed them on plate looks like he lacks trust in his players

 

[topspin]

How was Azhar Ali a good captain?

Because he's Misbah friend.

Misbah's loyalists always taking sides of their hero but also his allies.

 

[Markhor]

For me the alarm bells starting ringing about Babar's captaincy when he spread the field at Sabina Park allowing Kemar Roach and Jayden Seales to take easy singles.

 

[cricketerB94]

From what I have observed, Babar is not good as captain for any format, not only test format. I mean if you look at his media interactions, you will not believe that he is our captain. In the pre-match press conference of this match, he was happy that they played well in last test and his players scored 100s. Man, you are expected to at-least win at home if you are not winning by innings margins.

 

[muqarrab]

Having watched the pakistan team play since 1987 there has been a mix bag when it comes to the test captaincy. Some have taken the responsibility on their shoulders and done a great job other and others have been worse than you would see at club cricket level.

Through out pakistans entire cricketing history we have had some talented teams lead by good captains. We have also some captains get the best possible output from very limited talented teams.

But who on the flip side has been pakistans worst TEST CAPTAIN. Here are a few

Moin khan - i will never forget the negative and poor team selections during series vs england in 2000. playing just 2 seamers in each test (one of those being Abdul Razzaq). Then banking on an assortment of spinners
Musthtaq ahmed (past his sell by date)
qasir abbas / shahid afridi (not test match spinners)
danish kaneria (not ready for test cricket at the time)

spin favoured over pace, negative batting all series and even worse in field. Gutless surrender in karachi will never been forgotten.

Amir sohail, rameez Raja, Azhar Ali all short stints as test skippers all stick in the mind as poor as well.

Now we have Babar Azam, tactically inept. Doesnt have a pair of balls to drop certain players from the team and move forward. Captaincy in field is negative and unimaginative, doesnt lead from front either.

So who from all pakistan captains uve seen is the worst ever in TESTs?

Saeed Anwar. SL in pakistan in 2000 was painful to watch.

Moin Khan's captaincy overlapped with Miandad's tenure as a coach, i think a lot of what Moin is blamed for should go to Miandad, after all Miandad was the coach when we tried to defeat Aussies in 1998 with the same playbook he used against Eng in 2000.

 

[shariqnoor]

Instead of asking who's been the worst, just ask who's been the best. Because the good captains are very few in Pakistan's history.

In my opinion, my best captains in order of merit are

1) Salim Malik
2) Misbah ul Haq
3) Mushtaq Muhammad

Imran Khan was a decent ODI captain but wasn't a great Test captain. His whole test match captaincy tenure is defined by just those WI series.

You take those three out and the rest are all average. Some slightly better than average,
like Imran, Miandad and Wasim. Babar is just another one joining the list of mediocrity. This mediocrity stems from our cricketers not being educated therefore they don't develop match sense. Our captaincy stocks are really low. Even if we replace Babar, you will not see any change in result.

 

[Rana]

Instead of asking who's been the worst, just ask who's been the best. Because the good captains are very few in Pakistan's history.

In my opinion, my best captains in order of merit are

1) Salim Malik
2) Misbah ul Haq
3) Mushtaq Muhammad

Imran Khan was a decent ODI captain but wasn't a great Test captain. His whole test match captaincy tenure is defined by just those WI series.

You take those three out and the rest are all average. Some slightly better than average,
like Imran, Miandad and Wasim. Babar is just another one joining the list of mediocrity. This mediocrity stems from our cricketers not being educated therefore they don't develop match sense. Our captaincy stocks are really low. Even if we replace Babar, you will not see any change in result.

Inzimam was pretty decent too. He was a natural leader.

 

[Hawkeye]

Instead of asking who's been the worst, just ask who's been the best. Because the good captains are very few in Pakistan's history.

In my opinion, my best captains in order of merit are

1) Salim Malik
2) Misbah ul Haq
3) Mushtaq Muhammad

Pretty much yes.

However, Saleem Malik didn't have as many wins as Misbah.

Right now, Misbah ul Haq is Pakistan's most successful Test captain, with the most number of Test victories.

Who's the worse?
Tough question.

IF we're talking about Babar Azam, he's a poor captain.

 

[Moiz14]

More than captaincy, it's low quality of players he has... Nauman and Sajid aren't international quality by any means.. Shaheen is so so average, bowls 2 overs on line length and just start bowling around the wicket to left handers all over the place like he is Denis lilly or wasim akram... Hassan is OK ok. Faheem is also OK line n length medium pacer.. Imam, azhar, fawad and Rizwan are no 2ay test players in front of world class bowlers like aus have.. Babar is no imran Khan but its not all about captaincy, its avg quality of players who are not simply capable of competing with India Aus in tests... With reat of the teams they can compete which they do. Ind nd Aus have far better quality players in terms of skills, temperament, qualityand class...

 

[Amjid Javed]

Inzimam was pretty decent too. He was a natural leader.

Inzi lead from the front as a batsmen as test skipper, however in the field hes captaincy was pretty average, he did have some decent series results though.

 

[Rana]

Inzi lead from the front as a batsmen as test skipper, however in the field hes captaincy was pretty average, he did have some decent series results though.

IMO Pakistan cricket fell apart once Inzi retired. Guys like Yousuf, Malik and Younis khan started to hold Pakistan and the PCB to rancsom. Inzimam was the glue that kept all of these selfish individuals together.

 

[Amjid Javed]

IMO Pakistan cricket fell apart once Inzi retired. Guys like Yousuf, Malik and Younis khan started to hold Pakistan and the PCB to rancsom. Inzimam was the glue that kept all of these selfish individuals together.

Im not disputing that Inzi kept team spirit good as a test captain. Doesnt change fact that he was reactive and defensive in the field rather then being a proactive skipper.

 

[Kianig89]

MoYo Moin the most clueless of recent times but if continued Babar will leapfrog them he has that minnow attitude