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Sarfaraz Ahmed vs Misbah-ul-Haq as Test captains

Ozeirk

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In my opinion Sarfaraz is not very smart when it comes to devising a strategy for test win. He has a decent team at his disposal with a mix of young and experienced players yet he fails to read the situation and is very rarely able to come to the rescue of the team when the going gets tough.

Misbah, on the other hand led from the front, he did not only perform himself but got the others peroforming around him. He was also better at making drs calls which is an area where sarfaraz really struggles.
 
Misbah was undefeated at home in how many test series in a row?

Even Sarfraz was a better player under Misbah's captaincy. That says a lot.

Misbah knew how to use his spinners to his advantage, and know when to attack / defend.

On the other hand, Sarfraz is a much better LOI captain.
 
Misbah would have been treated with utmost respect in any other team. Only in Pakistan he is talked down, ridiculed and compared with a trash player like Sarfaraz Ahmed. Ridiculous.
 
Misbah was undefeated at home in how many test series in a row?

Even Sarfraz was a better player under Misbah's captaincy. That says a lot.

Misbah knew how to use his spinners to his advantage, and know when to attack / defend.

On the other hand, Sarfraz is a much better LOI captain.
Kohli is undefeated in 11series at home that not make him a good captain
 
Kohli is undefeated in 11series at home that not make him a good captain

Indians are known to make rank turners to take the western oppositions completely out of the game. Icc has fined bcci on the quality of pitches that are dished out.
 
Indians are known to make rank turners to take the western oppositions completely out of the game. Icc has fined bcci on the quality of pitches that are dished out.
What is australia eng and sa will give
To indian team turning tracks??? every team will preapare pitches that suits them
Sa aus also got warned by icc this year what about that pitches
 
In my opinion Sarfaraz is not very smart when it comes to devising a strategy for test win. He has a decent team at his disposal with a mix of young and experienced players yet he fails to read the situation and is very rarely able to come to the rescue of the team when the going gets tough.

Misbah, on the other hand led from the front, he did not only perform himself but got the others peroforming around him. He was also better at making drs calls which is an area where sarfaraz really struggles.
A 3-0whitewash vs Aus
A 2-0whitewash vs nz
A1-1 draw series vs zim this decade is a crime
A3-0 whitewash vs sa
A1-1 drawn series vs sa in uae so called fortress
A 1-1 drawn series vs nz in uae
A 1-1 drawn series vs srl in uae with mis you
2test matches lost to windies team
And pak fans treated misbah like a saviuor
So many loopholes for a great captain
 
What is australia eng and sa will give
To indian team turning tracks??? every team will preapare pitches that suits them
Sa aus also got warned by icc this year what about that pitches

Calm down.

Misbah is our most successful Test captain, genius!!

Keep hating.
 
No comparison. Misbah as Test captain was magnificent. His only problem was at times he was too laid back and predictable but he produced the results so no complains. The best thing about him was that he lead from the front.

Sarfraz on the other hand doesn't believe in leading from the front. He is leading from his mouth only which is why he is getting criticism so much. Tactically Misbah was better as Test captain than Sarfraz.
 
Well obviously you will take the captain who made the team on merit, led from the front with performances , and was the captain for many wins in UAE.
 
SArfraz is the 2nd worst ever for Pakistan, after Misbah. Misbah infected the team with negativity and keeping personal interest ahead of the team mentality. It will take Pak team some time to recover from that.
 
Sarfaraz stooped to a new low yesterday at 4 down teams would go full throttle & declare, Sarfaraz was scared of loosing his wckt hence blocking... guys gotta go!
 
Misbah the Test captain was a genius. Took Pakistan Test team to #1 ranked. No comparison with someone like Sarfraz. Strictly talking about Tests here.
 
Misbah was a different class/breed

Just goes to show how an educated background can take you far as a captain. This has nothing to do with who can speak better English, it is basic fact that a university educated player would have a better understanding of how to deal with situations and individuals. Need more guys like him representing our Test side
 
Pakistan lost two of it's best batsmen in Tests when Sarfraz took over and that is where Pakistan have lost their games. Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq have been found wanting, opening slot still an issue, and Haris Sohail and Babar Azam relatively new to Tests.

Sarfraz has a lot to learn, but the batting is a lot weaker once Misbah and Younis retired with no replacements been found as of yet.

Hopefully Babar and Haris can become solid, while also getting in another new batsman, even giving Fakhar a try as an opener could add more impetus to the batting line up.

Misbah relied heavily on spinners and did very well with them in the UAE, Sarfraz only has Yasir Shah at his disposal along who's took a while to get going along with Bilal Asif, who isn't exactly very threatening.
 
A 3-0whitewash vs Aus
A 2-0whitewash vs nz
A1-1 draw series vs zim this decade is a crime
A3-0 whitewash vs sa
A1-1 drawn series vs sa in uae so called fortress
A 1-1 drawn series vs nz in uae
A 1-1 drawn series vs srl in uae with mis you
2test matches lost to windies team
And pak fans treated misbah like a saviuor
So many loopholes for a great captain

Well said
 
Prefer Sarfaraz over Misbah. He has that fire in his belly. Sarfaraz is not as talented but through hard work and determination fights it out.
 
Prefer Sarfaraz over Misbah. He has that fire in his belly. Sarfaraz is not as talented but through hard work and determination fights it out.

Fire is not the only thing that Sarfaraz has got inside his belly. :inti
 
Sarfaraz hopefuly will mature as captain and will learn to keep his composure in tough situations, placing better fields... As he plays more tests as captain...... He must realize that he has to improve as a captain to benifit the pak team
 
People sometimes forget that Misbah had Younis and himself in the batting line up. That middle order with Azhar, Misbah, Younis, Asad and Sarfraz is the best we've had since Inzi, Moyo and Younis batted together.

How many test matches did Younis win with his batting? Who in this current order is capable of winning matches on their own with the bat?

How many time did Misbah rescue us from a potential crisis? With Misbah and Younis, we would've won the first test by an innings.
 
I am a massive fan of Sarfraz but he is lagging big time in batting in crucial situations.

In his short test captaincy career of 8 matches, we have already lost 3 close matches especially against SL by 11 runs and against NZ by 4 runs. These 2 matches could have easily been won with Sarfraz scoring just 5 runs. He has let us down there.

Other than his batting he is a top draw captain for me who has done v.well with a young team and with seniors (Asad and Azhar) failing. WK has been top notch since England tour too.
 
I am a massive fan of Sarfraz but he is lagging big time in batting in crucial situations.

In his short test captaincy career of 8 matches, we have already lost 3 close matches especially against SL by 11 runs and against NZ by 4 runs. These 2 matches could have easily been won with Sarfraz scoring just 5 runs. He has let us down there.

Other than his batting he is a top draw captain for me who has done v.well with a young team and with seniors (Asad and Azhar) failing. WK has been top notch since England tour too.
I agree with the first part.
 
I am a massive fan of Sarfraz but he is lagging big time in batting in crucial situations.
.

Agree with the first part too! Except "Was" a massive fan instead of "is".

The idea of rating captaincy is subjective and prone to a lot of bias so we cannot easily say one is better than the other.

Can judge on contributions, leading from the front though where he's at a very low level.

If he was averaging 40 in the last 2 years nobody would be calling for him to be dropped.
 
Sarfraz is not even within touching distance of Misbah (there haven't been many calm captains like Misbah)
 
Both rubbish test captains but if I had to choose I'd still choose Sarfraz because at least he backs younger players which is fundamental to developing teams for the future. In that respect he is a leader whereas Misbah was known for his preferences of his friends and seniors.

What epitomises Misbah's reign as captain was when he was called out by Channel 9 comm. box for what was the worst captaincy I have ever seen in a test series in Aus. He was also pretty hopeless in SA as well. His time was up when he failed to beat a minnow Zimbabwe side in a series 5 years ago. Courtesy of Younis Khan, who was always Misbah's saviour, he managed to rescue the side a draw otherwise it would have been the most humiliating test series defeat in Pakistan's cricketing history.

Only a blind fan would back him from then onwards.
 
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Misbah's tactics were better than Sarfraz in UAE. I don't recall Misbah playing with 1 spinner any time in UAE.
 
I tabulated the results of both captains just so I can slap some of these haters with sense and logic.

Captaincy.jpg



Here are the results, Sarfaraz has pretty much matched Misbah's captaincy record so far apart from the 0-2 loss to SL at home which mind you was his first series as captain. Apart from that Sarf has upheld the tradition of smashing Aussies at home and drawing away against England. Misbah never won a series at home against NZ, while Sarf is on the cusp of doing that. Keep in mind Misbah's side had Pakistani legend Younis Khan to come with a legendary knock whenever the team needed most, he also had the services of Ajmal and later Yasir. Misbah's captaincy record also benefited from playing the lowly Lankans every other Sunday to boost up his record.

I have not included the results against WI, ZIM and BD since these sides are minnows and Sarf hasn't faced them yet, but these do not make for pretty reading for Misbah as he even managed to go to ZIM and WI and draw a series.
 
I tabulated the results of both captains just so I can slap some of these haters with sense and logic.

View attachment 86000



Here are the results, Sarfaraz has pretty much matched Misbah's captaincy record so far apart from the 0-2 loss to SL at home which mind you was his first series as captain. Apart from that Sarf has upheld the tradition of smashing Aussies at home and drawing away against England. Misbah never won a series at home against NZ, while Sarf is on the cusp of doing that. Keep in mind Misbah's side had Pakistani legend Younis Khan to come with a legendary knock whenever the team needed most, he also had the services of Ajmal and later Yasir. Misbah's captaincy record also benefited from playing the lowly Lankans every other Sunday to boost up his record.

I have not included the results against WI, ZIM and BD since these sides are minnows and Sarf hasn't faced them yet, but these do not make for pretty reading for Misbah as he even managed to go to ZIM and WI and draw a series.

Good analysis. Credit to Misbah he transformed our test team into a consistent unit. The problem with Misbah was how he played limited overs cricket.

I guess we can agree that Misbah was the better test captain and may be Sarfaraz has done better in limited overs (mainly T20 and one Champions Trophy).
 
I don't rate Sarfraz highly at all but it is absurd to compare his record with Misbah's, when the latter had an ATG player vs spin who used to carry the side in Asia.
 
I tabulated the results of both captains just so I can slap some of these haters with sense and logic.

View attachment 86000



Here are the results, Sarfaraz has pretty much matched Misbah's captaincy record so far apart from the 0-2 loss to SL at home which mind you was his first series as captain. Apart from that Sarf has upheld the tradition of smashing Aussies at home and drawing away against England. Misbah never won a series at home against NZ, while Sarf is on the cusp of doing that. Keep in mind Misbah's side had Pakistani legend Younis Khan to come with a legendary knock whenever the team needed most, he also had the services of Ajmal and later Yasir. Misbah's captaincy record also benefited from playing the lowly Lankans every other Sunday to boost up his record.

I have not included the results against WI, ZIM and BD since these sides are minnows and Sarf hasn't faced them yet, but these do not make for pretty reading for Misbah as he even managed to go to ZIM and WI and draw a series.


The stats don't make for pretty reading now eh? Lost to NZ at home :))) :))) :))) .

To quote your words , "Misbah wipes the floor with Sarfraz as a captain".
[MENTION=139288]Abdul[/MENTION]
 
The stats don't make for pretty reading now eh? Lost to NZ at home :))) :))) :))) .

To quote your words , "Misbah wipes the floor with Sarfraz as a captain".
[MENTION=139288]Abdul[/MENTION]

Thank you for digging this one up. :baelish
 
Seems amusing since everyone used to thrash Misbah as captain when he was not only a great batsmen in Tests but also exactly what the Test team needed at the team. A calm strategic thinker who knew how to use his bowlers (lets also keep in mind the fast bowling Misbah had at the time was utter trash for the most part).

I'm not sure if it is Sarfraz or Mickey or maybe both, but the strategy of not going with at least 2 specialist spinners in UAE is dumb. They used 1 vs SL and lost. Used Bilal Asif vs NZ/AUS which was a clear mistake since he doesn't even perform well in UAE.

I will say one thing in favour of Misbah at the time was having plenty of great batsmen in their prime (Hafeez/Younis/Azhar and Misbah himself were unbeatable in Asia). Sarfraz hasn't done himself any favours with his poor batting but I'm not sure he has any batsmen that is reliable to be honest and obviously no one at the level of Younis. Maybe Babar gets there but he's not there yet. I don't think Sarfraz is to blame entirely for the struggles but he shares his blame along with Mickey and Inzy for their poor input/selection.

Now, there needs to be a changing of the guard and more youngsters who have performed greatly in FC need to be introduced such as Shakeel and Saad Ali.
 
I tabulated the results of both captains just so I can slap some of these haters with sense and logic.

View attachment 86000



Here are the results, Sarfaraz has pretty much matched Misbah's captaincy record so far apart from the 0-2 loss to SL at home which mind you was his first series as captain. Apart from that Sarf has upheld the tradition of smashing Aussies at home and drawing away against England. Misbah never won a series at home against NZ, while Sarf is on the cusp of doing that. Keep in mind Misbah's side had Pakistani legend Younis Khan to come with a legendary knock whenever the team needed most, he also had the services of Ajmal and later Yasir. Misbah's captaincy record also benefited from playing the lowly Lankans every other Sunday to boost up his record.

I have not included the results against WI, ZIM and BD since these sides are minnows and Sarf hasn't faced them yet, but these do not make for pretty reading for Misbah as he even managed to go to ZIM and WI and draw a series.

Kya hua bhai lol. Sarfaraz the fiery one hehe.
 
Misbah was known for his preferences of his friends and seniors.

The irony of that comment- Sarfaraz continues to select he’s buddies...we all know about the disagreement he had with Mickey.
 
Sarfaraz is the guy who was in right place at right time post Misbah.

With this squad, Misbah would also have lost in SA. Just that Sarfaraz now is in wrong place at wrong time.

In a nutshell, it has nothing to do with his Captaincy skills. His successes and failures are circumstantial and not because of his Captaincy, particularly Tests and to an extent ODIs.

Like Sarfaraz, Misbah also didn't have a great squad. But Misbah quickly learned benefits of playing a waiting game; a method which he would later, wrongly, adopt for limited overs cricket. He was not the Captain who will give you Big Margin wins or Big Margin losses. Such a Captain will always be a topic of debates for "Could have Lost" and "Could have Won". He was +/- 5% either side of Finish Line.

Sarfaraz tries to make things happen but he can not do it for an extended period of time. I said it in "Sarfraz Captaincy Watch" thread an year ago. His brain drains beyond 30 overs. If it works, he will win matches by big big margins. If it doesn't work, he will lose matches by big big margins. He is +/- 40-50% either side of Finish Line.

Misbah was a fighter and never a gambler. Sarfraz is a gambler but can't fight beyond initial burst.
 
There is no comparison between the 2, a calm collected captain vs erratic screamer. Please
 
Misbab was in the team on merit and leading from the front. Safraz aspires no confidence with his inept batting and lack of fitness.
 
It is massively disrespectful to Misbah that he is being compared to someone like Sarfraz.
 
Sarfaraz is the guy who was in right place at right time post Misbah.

With this squad, Misbah would also have lost in SA. Just that Sarfaraz now is in wrong place at wrong time.

In a nutshell, it has nothing to do with his Captaincy skills. His successes and failures are circumstantial and not because of his Captaincy, particularly Tests and to an extent ODIs.

Like Sarfaraz, Misbah also didn't have a great squad. But Misbah quickly learned benefits of playing a waiting game; a method which he would later, wrongly, adopt for limited overs cricket. He was not the Captain who will give you Big Margin wins or Big Margin losses. Such a Captain will always be a topic of debates for "Could have Lost" and "Could have Won". He was +/- 5% either side of Finish Line.

Sarfaraz tries to make things happen but he can not do it for an extended period of time. I said it in "Sarfraz Captaincy Watch" thread an year ago. His brain drains beyond 30 overs. If it works, he will win matches by big big margins. If it doesn't work, he will lose matches by big big margins. He is +/- 40-50% either side of Finish Line.

Misbah was a fighter and never a gambler. Sarfraz is a gambler but can't fight beyond initial burst.

This is an excellent post.

Misbah was very good at taking the game deep, especially in UAE. The biggest examples are the two Test series vs England in 2012 and 2015 respectively.

We won 5 out of 6 Tests, but England played very well. In fact, they probably won as many sessions as we did, but Misbah still managed to strangle them over 5 days.

Under Sarfraz, Pakistan would have lost both series.

The longer the former, the worse his captaincy gets. He is tactically poor and once his team is down and out, he cannot recover with his bowling changes and field placements. The way he shouts at his players is a projection of his own fears and insecurities.

He is an okay T20 captain, poor ODI captain and a dreadful Test captain. Misbah was the opposite, and he failed in Limited Overs because he was inflexible and didn’t have a good feel for the game. It was reflected in his batting as well.
 
The irony of that comment- Sarfaraz continues to select he’s buddies...we all know about the disagreement he had with Mickey.

Other than Shafiq who are in his circle in the side?

Under Misbah we saw Hafeez given a long rope, backed timid defensive minded players like Azhar and Shafiq, with the former as captain even though he wasn't part of the ODI squad. We also saw players like Iftikhar Ahmed given a test debut at the Oval as well - luckily because of Younis Khan's double hundred his selection didn't scupper a win for Pakistan.
 
One thing posters on here must realise Misbah had Saeed Ajmal up until 2014 and Younis Khan throughout his captaincy.

If Sarfraz had these at his disposal, no doubt he would get the same results in UAE. Outside Asia, they're both lost as each other but in different ways.

Both very poor captains but if I had to pick one, I'd go for Sarfraz because at least he managed to accomplish something in ODIs with the CT win. For the last 20 years, Pakistan have made the semis in every ICC event held in England:

99 - WC runner up
2004 - CT Semis
2009 - WT20 winners
2013 - Lost every game at group stage
2017 - CT winners

The above is a real eye opener and perfectly displays Misbah's inferiority to all the other captains who at least managed to bag semi final in an ICC tournament held in England. He was the very reason why Pakistan were humiliated so badly in that 2013 tournament. He paid the price for his selections of Farhat + raw Umar Amin and the exclusions of Umar Akmal + Afridi. If that wasn't bad enough he misled the PCB into vouching for Azhar Ali as captain of the side despite the fact he wasn't even a regular in ODIs.

Given Misbah's defensive and ultra conservative approach with the preference of seniors + friends, it would go against his nature to select the likes of Fakhar, Hasan Ali and etc who both played starring roles in the CT win.

With a team lacking in leaders during the 2010s, it is no surprise that our last few captains (Sarfraz, Azhar Ali and Misbah) have all been failures. Until PCB finally realise picking 30+ players as captain isn't working, this trend of picking mediocre, short term leaders of the side will continue to scar the side.
 
Misbah destroyed pak Cricket.....He never backed new players in team..... That's y today we are facing such crisis...
 
There is no comparison between the 2, a calm collected captain vs erratic screamer. Please

Misbab was in the team on merit and leading from the front. Safraz aspires no confidence with his inept batting and lack of fitness.

It is massively disrespectful to Misbah that he is being compared to someone like Sarfraz.

This.

End of debate. It's a massive disrespect to our most successful Test captain, being compared to this joke Sarfraz.
 
I would only say this and that should be enough to judge both Misbah and Sarfraz.

Misbah was a student of the game.
 
Sarfraz has been absolutely appalling. There's no comparison to be made.

I hate calling for captaincy changes as I grew up in the 90s when captains were being changed like socks, but Sarfraz keeps bungling team selections, strategy and misreading conditions. He cannot concentrate for 5 days of a Test match, T20 is the limit of his patience.
 
Sarfraz has been absolutely appalling. There's no comparison to be made.

I hate calling for captaincy changes as I grew up in the 90s when captains were being changed like socks, but Sarfraz keeps bungling team selections, strategy and misreading conditions. He cannot concentrate for 5 days of a Test match, T20 is the limit of his patience.

Said it 20 months ago.

Jack of all trades and not a master.

Prepare yourself for a loss in ODI series.

T20 is his strongest suit as a captain. And these wins have not been influenced by his Captaincy.

To lead for 100 overs is simply beyond him.
 
Other than Shafiq who are in his circle in the side?

Under Misbah we saw Hafeez given a long rope, backed timid defensive minded players like Azhar and Shafiq, with the former as captain even though he wasn't part of the ODI squad. We also saw players like Iftikhar Ahmed given a test debut at the Oval as well - luckily because of Younis Khan's double hundred his selection didn't scupper a win for Pakistan.

But Hafeez continued to be selected for Test cricket under Sarfraz? Azhar is still there? Is that Misbah’s fault too?
 
One thing posters on here must realise Misbah had Saeed Ajmal up until 2014 and Younis Khan throughout his captaincy.

If Sarfraz had these at his disposal, no doubt he would get the same results in UAE. Outside Asia, they're both lost as each other but in different ways.

Nonsense argument. Sarfaraz has Yasir?

Also, I can say to you that Steve Waugh had Langer, Hayden, Gilchrist etc...India had Tendulkar etc etc:
 
Misbah destroyed pak Cricket.....He never backed new players in team..... That's y today we are facing such crisis...

Yea man its Misbah’s fault the domestic system does not produce high class batsmen
 
But Hafeez continued to be selected for Test cricket under Sarfraz? Azhar is still there? Is that Misbah’s fault too?

Misbah vouched for Azhar to captain the ODI side despite not being part of the world cup squad (let alone the XI) and was clearly unworthy to make the team on merit.

As for Hafeez both captains are to be blamed for their selections but it was Misbah who continued to select him in tests despite being ruthlessly exposed in SA 6 years ago during that Steyn series. Sarfraz and Mickey had discarded Hafeez from the Asia Cup however due to media pressure and after a poor tournament, the lobby backing him were always going to get what they wished for with his return.

Don't get me wrong, I despise both of these guys but Misbah more so for almost single handedly destroying Pakistan cricket in the 2010s. Sarfraz is a tactical failure but at least he has developed a LOI side that can compete on its day whereas Misbah's side had reverted from DVDs to VHS tapes with the brand of cricket he demanded from the side.
 
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This is an excellent post.

Misbah was very good at taking the game deep, especially in UAE. The biggest examples are the two Test series vs England in 2012 and 2015 respectively.

We won 5 out of 6 Tests, but England played very well. In fact, they probably won as many sessions as we did, but Misbah still managed to strangle them over 5 days.

Under Sarfraz, Pakistan would have lost both series.

The longer the former, the worse his captaincy gets. He is tactically poor and once his team is down and out, he cannot recover with his bowling changes and field placements. The way he shouts at his players is a projection of his own fears and insecurities.

He is an okay T20 captain, poor ODI captain and a dreadful Test captain. Misbah was the opposite, and he failed in Limited Overs because he was inflexible and didn’t have a good feel for the game. It was reflected in his batting as well.

I don't buy into Sarfaraz's captaincy skills at all, Misbah for all his faults was calm under pressure, Sarfaraz just loses it when things don't go to plan and that has a magnifying effect on the team.
 
Misbah destroyed pak Cricket.....He never backed new players in team..... That's y today we are facing such crisis...

Sarfraz, The Captain, is victim of that. That's why I said Sarfraz is now at wrong place in wrong time. Any Captain following Misbah was bound to fail because Misbah couldn't develop players. No better examples than Azhar and Shafiq.
 
Nonsense argument. Sarfaraz has Yasir?

Also, I can say to you that Steve Waugh had Langer, Hayden, Gilchrist etc...India had Tendulkar etc etc:

Again your cherry picking rather than addressing my whole post - you conveniently ignored Younis Khan who was without a doubt the biggest factor behind those test wins in UAE.

Misbah always had 2 good spinners from Ajmal and Rehman to Yasir and Zulfiqar. Under Sarfraz there is only one good spinner and he has proven to be largley toothless outside Asia + WI.
 
Sarfraz, The Captain, is victim of that. That's why I said Sarfraz is now at wrong place in wrong time. Any Captain following Misbah was bound to fail because Misbah couldn't develop players. No better examples than Azhar and Shafiq.

Precisely, there was no succession planning with Misbah because of his preference for friends + oldies (like Iftikhar Ahmed in a decider) and timid blokes (in Shafiq and Azhar).

Misbah was also fortunate to have an ATG batsman against spin in Younis Khan for those wins in UAE. If Sarfraz had him I can assure you those results against SL and NZ would have been quite different.
 
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