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Virat Kohli vs Misbah-ul-Haq - Who has the greater legacy in Tests?

Virat Kohli vs Misbah-ul-Haq - Who has the greater legacy in Tests?

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shaz619

shaz619

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It’s fair to say there is no love lost when it comes my assesment of these two performers; being one of the most objective authorities on the careers of both men, I though it’s a good chance to sit back and examine who had the greater legacy in Tests.

Virat Kohli

- Average 46.85
- Majority of games in India
- Helped re-invent Ishant Sharma and other quicks
- Helped India to no.1 with the home advantage
- Steep decline during the end of his career and quit the toughest format in cricket


Misbah ul Haq

- Average 46.62
- Majority of games away from home
- Was very good at getting the most out of spinners
- Took Pakistan to no.1 with no home cricket
- Kept getting better during his later years and was vital cog in the Test batting line up and generally very consistent between 2010 until retirement.
 
If you asked this a few years ago you would presume Kohli gets the slight edge, but after he quit on his country and went out the way he did after the PAF downed the jets, was quiet a disgraceful ending for him really while Misbah went out on a big high.
 
Misbah was a fine player and a fine captain for Pakistan. I am a big fan of his test batting. He is unfairly maligned by many sections of Pakistans fan. His captaincy era in Tests was a real golden period for us and one I look forward to fondly. I still can vividly remember his tuk sections before launching against Monty in the last over before tea, the press ups at Lords, the fastest century, the bazball style bashing of Bangladesh in Mirpur and him top scoring for us in the series v India.

But Kohli's captaincy and his batting heroics trump Misbah's achievement in the format.

Overall, despite Misbahs good career we can't compare a guy with 10 centuries to someone with 30.

This is purely a hypothetical answer though. In real life if a decision came between a Pakistan and Indian I'd pick the Pakistani.
 
I have a lot of respect for what Kohli achieved as captain. Making India into a force away from home and beating Australia in Australia are massive achievements. Made India into a formidable bowling side during his captaincy too. As a batsman though, the last five years of his career were an absolute joke, and he was basically playing on reputation after a certain point. His drop was pretty staggering too. At one point, he looked every bit like a future ATG, but by the end of the end of his career the guy barely managed to breach the 9K run mark.

But I have to go with Misbah simply because of the challenges he had to contend with. Making Pakistan into such a good test side in the aftermath of the spot-fixing debacle wasn't something anyone expected. His captaincy was one of the most stable and successful periods in the history of Pakistan's test cricket. As a batsman, he was never the most naturally gifted but he punched above his weight. An average of 51 as captain is nothing to scoff at. And I don't think anyone can dispute the fact that he was one of the best players of spin in the world during his time, which is no longer a particularly common thing among Asian batsmen anymore.

India were already a pretty good test side when Kohli took over. The bowling was a dumpster fire but in general they were still one of the top sides in the world. Pakistan were not, which is why I am going with Misbah.
 
RedwoodOriginal said:
I have a lot of respect for what Kohli achieved as captain. Making India into a force away from home and beating Australia in Australia are massive achievements. Made India into a formidable bowling side during his captaincy too. As a batsman though, the last five years of his career were an absolute joke, and he was basically playing on reputation after a certain point. His drop was pretty staggering too. At one point, he looked every bit like a future ATG, but by the end of the end of his career the guy barely managed to breach the 9K run mark.

But I have to go with Misbah simply because of the challenges he had to contend with. Making Pakistan into such a good test side in the aftermath of the spot-fixing debacle wasn't something anyone expected. His captaincy was one of the most stable and successful periods in the history of Pakistan's test cricket. As a batsman, he was never the most naturally gifted but he punched above his weight. An average of 51 as captain is nothing to scoff at. And I don't think anyone can dispute the fact that he was one of the best players of spin in the world during his time, which is no longer a particularly common thing among Asian batsmen anymore.

India were already a pretty good test side when Kohli took over. The bowling was a dumpster fire but in general they were still one of the top sides in the world. Pakistan were not, which is why I am going with Misbah.
Click to expand...
I think it was Ajinkya Rahane not Kohli...but need to crosscheck
 
shaz619 said:
@Bhaag Viru Bhaag @DeadlyVenom @Rana @mominsaigol @RedwoodOriginal @BunnyRabbit @Major @Suleiman Thoughts?
Click to expand...
shaz619 said:
@Bhaag Viru Bhaag @DeadlyVenom @Rana @mominsaigol @RedwoodOriginal @BunnyRabbit @Major @Suleiman Thoughts?
Click to expand...


Kohli and Pietersen are slight Test under achievers. They should have maintained an average above 50 or at least close to it like Inzimam did.

Misbah over achieved with his skill set. He knew how to not do anything when it was tough going, and then cash in when things became easier. IMO skill wise he wasn’t better than batters like Atherton, Hussain, Butcher…but application wise he knew how to make the most of his stay in the UAE.
 
Misbah is known as one of the best Test captain in Pakistan's history. He also helped Pakistan get to number and get that Test mace. Kohli failed to get a mace for India but he did made the Test team no. 1. Now that was for captaincy.

Now player to player performance is hard to tilt one side cause Misbah mostly batted at no. 5 and Kohli at no. 4 and 3. Now because Kohli played more matches and scored more runs. I'm going to give this one to Kohli.
 
Rana said:
Kohli and Pietersen are slight Test under achievers. They should have maintained an average above 50 or at least close to it like Inzimam did.

Misbah over achieved with his skill set. He knew how to not do anything when it was tough going, and then cash in when things became easier. IMO skill wise he wasn’t better than batters like Atherton, Hussain, Butcher…but application wise he knew how to make the most of his stay in the UAE.
Click to expand...

If Misbah was playing for Bangladesh, he would be regarded very very highly, think of all the runs he’d pile during the 2000’s. Unfortunately he just was never good enough to break into what was a bit of a golden gen for us when it came to the middle order. But he was excellent at maximising his strengths as you said and while he didn’t have the talent, I think he was a lot stronger mentally then Kohli in Tests; his die hard fans use to blame his marriage with little Angie for his failures, the way he quit the format and left Tests is a big stain on his legacy imo Misbah was at least Chalak enough to be carried on Younis Khan’s strong back. Not to mention Kohli, has been terrible in the WTC and KW did the job for his country in a direct head to head between members of the fab 4 club.
 
RedwoodOriginal said:
I have a lot of respect for what Kohli achieved as captain. Making India into a force away from home and beating Australia in Australia are massive achievements. Made India into a formidable bowling side during his captaincy too. As a batsman though, the last five years of his career were an absolute joke, and he was basically playing on reputation after a certain point. His drop was pretty staggering too. At one point, he looked every bit like a future ATG, but by the end of the end of his career the guy barely managed to breach the 9K run mark.

But I have to go with Misbah simply because of the challenges he had to contend with. Making Pakistan into such a good test side in the aftermath of the spot-fixing debacle wasn't something anyone expected. His captaincy was one of the most stable and successful periods in the history of Pakistan's test cricket. As a batsman, he was never the most naturally gifted but he punched above his weight. An average of 51 as captain is nothing to scoff at. And I don't think anyone can dispute the fact that he was one of the best players of spin in the world during his time, which is no longer a particularly common thing among Asian batsmen anymore.

India were already a pretty good test side when Kohli took over. The bowling was a dumpster fire but in general they were still one of the top sides in the world. Pakistan were not, which is why I am going with Misbah.
Click to expand...

That’s a fair point, Kohli was carved in an environment which was designed to help him succeed like it was a sure thing; Misbah was handicapped with the UAE situation and general resources, I actually think that YK would be averaging close to 60 if we played in Pak and Misbah knew how to squeeze the most out of the set-up back home, having played in those conditions his whole life.
 
DeadlyVenom said:
Misbah was a fine player and a fine captain for Pakistan. I am a big fan of his test batting. He is unfairly maligned by many sections of Pakistans fan. His captaincy era in Tests was a real golden period for us and one I look forward to fondly. I still can vividly remember his tuk sections before launching against Monty in the last over before tea, the press ups at Lords, the fastest century, the bazball style bashing of Bangladesh in Mirpur and him top scoring for us in the series v India.

But Kohli's captaincy and his batting heroics trump Misbah's achievement in the format.

Overall, despite Misbahs good career we can't compare a guy with 10 centuries to someone with 30.

This is purely a hypothetical answer though. In real life if a decision came between a Pakistan and Indian I'd pick the Pakistani.
Click to expand...

I would have accepted this a few years ago but Kohli’s decline has been truly shocking, Misbah’s late bloom suggests that he could have done well in Tests if he was able to break into the Pak side in the 2000’s and while it should go against him that he wasn’t able to, it must be considered that he was among the best performers in the world when he got the captaincy and that was under the constraints of not being able to play at home and the general situation with our set-up at the time. He equalled Viv as well I think, Kohli can only be compared to that legend on paper.
 
shaz619 said:
If Misbah was playing for Bangladesh, he would be regarded very very highly, think of all the runs he’d pile during the 2000’s. Unfortunately he just was never good enough to break into what was a bit of a golden gen for us when it came to the middle order. But he was excellent at maximising his strengths as you said and while he didn’t have the talent, I think he was a lot stronger mentally then Kohli in Tests; his die hard fans use to blame his marriage with little Angie for his failures, the way he quit the format and left Tests is a big stain on his legacy imo Misbah was at least Chalak enough to be carried on Younis Khan’s strong back. Not to mention Kohli, has been terrible in the WTC and KW did the job for his country in a direct head to head between members of the fab 4 club.
Click to expand...

As an all conditions and all situations batsmen I think Kohli is head and shoulders above Misbah any day of the week. They batted in different positions for most of their career and Kohli just wasn’t anywhere near as patient and willing to be boring as Misbah was. Misbah is the kind of bloke who would sit in a 3 hour examination where the exam paper realistically requires half an hour. Everyone in the hall would have handed their paper in by 1 hour yet this guy will stay there till the very last second of the 3rd hour revising his answers again and again, but he won’t change his answers to make them any better.

Kohli is the kind of guy who knows that he has aced his answers and handed in by 1 hour….absolute conviction in himself and moves on without thinking much.
 
Rana said:
As an all conditions and all situations batsmen I think Kohli is head and shoulders above Misbah any day of the week. They batted in different positions for most of their career and Kohli just wasn’t anywhere near as patient and willing to be boring as Misbah was. Misbah is the kind of bloke who would sit in a 3 hour examination where the exam paper realistically requires half an hour. Everyone in the hall would have handed their paper in by 1 hour yet this guy will stay there till the very last second of the 3rd hour revising his answers again and again, but he won’t change his answers to make them any better.

Kohli is the kind of guy who knows that he has aced his answers and handed in by 1 hour….absolute conviction in himself and moves on without thinking much.
Click to expand...

That’s probably how Kohli made the decision to retire as well, Misbah was like - over my dead body, he was going to play Tests forever, until Younis Khan took him out for breakfast one morning :yk
 
Misbah did all the work away from home and he kept those stats away from home as well. That is something that should be kept in mind. Virat played at home a lot but the way he declined in last couple of years before he retired, I think that has tainted his legacy a bit.
 
The Bald Eagle said:
The stats suggest it clearly...it was without any doubt Misbah-ul-Haq
Click to expand...
Sumup Pakistan cricket fans cricketing knowledge . no wonder Pakistan has become minnow in all formats and fans hyping tullebaaz based on performance against Minnows.

Virat is miles ahead of Misbah and it's not even close comparison. :kp
 
RidiculousMan said:

Misbah is known as one of the best Test captain in Pakistan's history. He also helped Pakistan get to number and get that Test mace. Kohli failed to get a mace for India but he did made the Test team no. 1. Now that was for captaincy.​


Now player to player performance is hard to tilt one side cause Misbah mostly batted at no. 5 and Kohli at no. 4 and 3. Now because Kohli played more matches and scored more runs. I'm going to give this one to Kohli.
Click to expand...
Sources - Pakistan fake propaganda factory . Kohli has won multiple test mace for india lol .😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 :kp
 
Misbah has an average of 29 in SENA countries, I remember that India's match with WI was rained out and because of that Pakistan managed to get to number one for a couple of days.
 
jeeteshssaxena said:
Misbah has an average of 29 in SENA countries, I remember that India's match with WI was rained out and because of that Pakistan managed to get to number one for a couple of days.
Click to expand...
They are comparing a 29 Average batters ( In SENA) to Virat Kohli, who dominated in SENA conditions. LAMO. :kp
 
BouncerGuy said:
Misbah did all the work away from home and he kept those stats away from home as well. That is something that should be kept in mind. Virat played at home a lot but the way he declined in last couple of years before he retired, I think that has tainted his legacy a bit.
Click to expand...

It has tainted his legacy considerably because you can make a case now that he isn’t an ATG due to his humiliating decline in Tests and on top of that, he quit on his country before a difficult tour; Misbah did well in England during a similar phase as Kohli during his career.
 
Basic averages don’t always tell the reality, Zaheer Abbas and Salim Malik average lower than Misbah but were better players.
 
Hellion said:
Yes. Very clear statistical advantage to Misbah . Even a blind bat can see that
Click to expand...
Misbah although we may criticize him in ODI was a much better player in Tests...He drew against a strong English side in England while other so called young goats even struggled in their prime in England against the great Jimmy Anderson
 
The Bald Eagle said:
Misbah although we may criticize him in ODI was a much better player in Tests...He drew against a strong English side in England while other so called young goats even struggled in their prime in England against the great Jimmy Anderson
Click to expand...

The only decent decent score Misbah made in England 2016 was against an attack without Jimmy Anderson.

Thoda dekhle bhai. Don't be so premature in your excitement :yk
 
Hellion said:
The only decent decent score Misbah made in England 2016 was against an attack without Jimmy Anderson.

Thoda dekhle bhai. Don't be so premature in your excitement :yk
Click to expand...
Hahah...and yes we in this thread are comparing a person bossing Test cricket at 41 years age in England to someone who throw in the towel in 36...Well tbh I appreciate VK decision as a blessing for India
 
The Bald Eagle said:
Hahah...and yes we in this thread are comparing a person bossing Test cricket in 41 years age in England to someone who throw in the towel in 36...Well tbh I appreciate VK decision as a blessing for India
Click to expand...
We are comparing Virat to a guy who was too mediocre make an already mediocre PAK Test side till he was in his mid 30's.
 
The Bald Eagle said:
In ODIs no comparison but in Tests you need to remove blue tinted lens for the reality check.
Click to expand...


You need to remove green tinted specs before making all your threads, then.

Misbah and Virat have played Test cricket in 7 common countries

SENA + West Indies + Bangladesh + Sri Lanka.

Let's see the records of both batsmen at these venues.

Misbah

Average : 34
Hundreds: 2

Virat

Average : 41
Hundreds : 16

Who is biased now, brother ? :srini
 
Misbah also averaged 116 in Tests against India who he absolutely smashed from genesis to revelations, Kohli was lucky not to play the no.1 Pakistan team and his record is very padded as a result, there’s a reason why the coward ducked Pakistan in Tests.
 
Hellion said:
You need to remove green tinted specs before making all your threads, then.

Misbah and Virat have played Test cricket in 7 common countries

SENA + West Indies + Bangladesh + Sri Lanka.

Let's see the records of both batsmen at these venues.

Misbah

Average : 34
Hundreds: 2

Virat

Average : 41
Hundreds : 16

Who is biased now, brother ? :srini
Click to expand...
Nice try but we are discussing their legacies here so some captaincy stats below...captaincy record in away matches

Misbah-ul-Haq 26 win out of 56 (Winning percentage 46.42

Virat Kohli 16 wins out of 37 (Winning percentage 43.24)
 
Who is Misbah ?

Another joke of a thread. When talking about cricket , keep your biased at home. By insulting Kohli , you're, showing your colors .
 
Batting wise Kohli is better than Misbah

Captaincy wise, Misbah is better than Kohli

Misbah's technique was flawed, but he knew how to stick in and survive. If our batters were able to do half of what Misbah used to do, we would had been a much better team.

Kohli's batting is class, so the comparison is flawed.
 
In the last stages of Kolhi's career, he made a mess of his legacy as a batter. While Misbah retired at the top of his form.
 
Hellion said:
You need to remove green tinted specs before making all your threads, then.

Misbah and Virat have played Test cricket in 7 common countries

SENA + West Indies + Bangladesh + Sri Lanka.

Let's see the records of both batsmen at these venues.

Misbah

Average : 34
Hundreds: 2

Virat

Average : 41
Hundreds : 16

Who is biased now, brother ? :srini
Click to expand...
Misbah also played in India btw.

It doesn't change your analysis much but he did very well in one series in India.

He was a very good player in Asia.
 
The thing is in last 5 years virat has been below washington sundar as test batsman and it then sparks these debates of him being better than misbah rahane or pujara. But we as fans also remember 2016 to 19 period where he was absolute beast.
The way players end their career often has lasting memories in fans mind and virat quit test after 5 years of struggle when he was about to be dropped meanwhile misbah retired when he won a series in windies with greatest pak batter younis khan.

Virat underachieved alot. And cleaely struggled in tests for half his career. And ended with 46 avg. Heck inzi who was considered loi player had 50 avg for pakistan.
So in terms of comparison this one is close but having seen virats peak i might say virat.
Misbah missed out on playing in india he was great in those conditions
 
shaz619 said:
It’s fair to say there is no love lost when it comes my assesment of these two performers; being one of the most objective authorities on the careers of both men, I though it’s a good chance to sit back and examine who had the greater legacy in Tests.

Virat Kohli

- Average 46.85
- Majority of games in India
- Helped re-invent Ishant Sharma and other quicks
- Helped India to no.1 with the home advantage
- Steep decline during the end of his career and quit the toughest format in cricket


Misbah ul Haq

- Average 46.62
- Majority of games away from home
- Was very good at getting the most out of spinners
- Took Pakistan to no.1 with no home cricket
- Kept getting better during his later years and was vital cog in the Test batting line up and generally very consistent between 2010 until retirement.
Click to expand...

Didn't realise you missed Misbah so much, shazzy. Don't worry , it's very likely that PCB will somehow manage to burn bridges even with Hesson.

And then you can talk about his legacy when he becomes your next all-format coach :srini
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Nikhil_cric said:
Didn't realise you missed Misbah so much, shazzy. Don't worry , it's very likely that PCB will somehow manage to burn bridges even with Hesson.

And then you can talk about his legacy when he becomes your next all-format coach :srini
Click to expand...

It’s Eid bro 🤣 why you giving me the worst dirty lol
 
Everyone a knows that Misbah got the same opportunities as Kohli after 2010, so it is only fair to compare their records during the period of Misbah’s consistent run in the Test side if you want to judge their SENA performances during this period:

Misbah:

Average: 52.36

50’s: 6
100’s: 5
S/R: 48.21
4’s: 149
6’s: 13

Virat Kohli

Average: 42.78
50’s: 4
100’s: 4
S/R: 50.59
6’s: 3

Misbah’s conversion rate is shockingly excellent, he hit more chukkaz then the so called free-flowing batter and averaged considerably more than Kohli with the Bat as well.

The only edge which Kohli has is the larger sample but there’s enough data to support the view that Misbah was the much better Test batter overall due to his consistency; to score runs so late the way he did, proves he would have been even better in his youth if he was given a similar rope as Virat Kohli.
 
Well both are different cases. The indian test team Kohli inherited wasn't poor in any means. They had the talent, a lot of good upcoming talents with the bat and Ashwin and Jadeja in prime. He also had the likes of Shami and Bhuvneshwar in prime. Umesh and Ishant hadn't been doing that well and Kohli's captaincy energized them and gave them a second wind into becoming very good test pacers. Once Kohli assumed captaincy, he made it clear that India needed pace bowlers to deliver if they were to win in SENA. Under his watch, India invested a lot in their pacers and let them be the main guys on away tours. India's performance in SENA was pretty laudable under his watch. At home, he was very assertive about result oriented pitches whether the matches would end in 2 or 3 days. He didn't care, neither if his batting average would take a beating. So Kohli would go down as a very test captain. Along the way, he made some egocentric mistakes as well, eg not opting for practice games and wanting just "high intensity" practice sessions which might have helped his batting but didn't work for his team. India has had a lot of great captains in history and has had a lot of consistent period of success but Virats legacy will be making pace a weapon for kill in tests.

Misbah on the other hand inherited a broken and inconsistent test team which was devoid of hosting home games and lacking one premier proven fast bowler in Asif and one emerging one in Amir. He obviously didn't do well in Australia and South Africa. Even as a batter, he himself was never a world beater nor did he have the luxury of having world class batters in the test team apart from Younis. So he had to do with what was available to him, Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq, Hafeez and Ahmed Shehzad. In Asia, he had to lose his premier spinner to chucking and had to bring in the only other spinner that was doing well in domestic ie Yasir Shah. Apart from that, he didn't have any control over the kind of pitches Pak would play on in UAE (UAE's pitches were not made as per wishes of PCB). Considering all of that and the way he carried Pakistan test team throughout his tenure without losing a single test series on the adopted home (even to the best touring sides of that era like South Africa and SL) was an achievement. Pakistan for the first time since 90s found itself in a timespan where it was devoid of controversy and instead was consistent and hasslefree. I think Misbah would go down as second best test captain of Pakistan team after IK.

So both are totally different cases, but I would go with Misbah as he had very little to rely on apart from Younis and Ajmal, later Yasir.
 
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