He was one of the best limited overs batter we ever had. Alot of people cant digest this fact and i really dont care. Like after Zaheer Abbas, Misbah held the highest batting avg in odis for Pakistan. Before Rizwan and Babar arrived, we didnt have a better batter than Misbah in limited overs.
This is from an Indian perspective so no bias from my side.
Misbah is not even top 10 limited over batter's Pakistan has produced. Inzi/Yousuf/Malik/Javed/Abbas/Izaz/Anwar.... Heck Even Imran Khan was a way better then slow Tuk tuk of Misbah in LOI's. On top of that his dour, unimaginative captaincy was
so sad to watch as a cricket fan.. But as an Indian fan it was funny as he destroyed the DNA and flair of Pakistan ODI cricket.
What made him a great limited overs batter was the fact that he was able to play in pressure situations. Alot of the ICC tournaments that Pakistan has lost over the years was due to our batsmen not being able to play in pressure situation. Like this is very easy to type instead of doing it, but not many of us can handle pressure.
He was a coward. Plain and simple. Pick and select average players, come down to bat at No.5 and then just tuk tuk your way to an impact less 90 ball 50... and end up being high scorer of the match for the Pakistan.
2015 WC vs India, 2011 WC vs India and countless other games his approach was same. Only once in his LOI career I would say he did his best was 2007 WC Final of T20Is. But he choked there at the end.
ICC tournaments are a pressure tournament. Many guys like Yousuf, Inzi, and many others have failed to perform because while they can rack up runs in series, they couldn't do so in an ICC tournament.
Misbah was the top scorer for Pakistan in 4 ICC tournaments.
- T20 WC 2007
- WC 2011
- CT 2013
- WC 2015
I feel proud of the fact that i was able to witness his career, and for me his era was the best era ever. Whenever I would see him walk out to bat, i would be glad that now the fall of wickets will stop from one end.
lol what pressure he could handle in these tournaments. He is solely responsible for 2013 Debacle where Pakistan lost every single match of Champions Trophy(3 matches on the trot.. first round shameful exit).
T20 final.. his shot is one for the ages for us Indian fans. He played such a stupid shot under pressure. He basically bottled it.
2011 WC Semifinal.. he played such a criminal innings. Just slowed and slowed things down putting pressure on other batters and hence the ultimate collapse.
On top of that, I had some respect for him for the way he led the Test team post the spot fixing debacle of Pakistan.But all that went away when he cheated his way into the Pakistan coaching job. That was an eye opener, as he turned out to be
a power hungry person. There was a massive conflict of interest in the way he handled sacking of Mickey Arthur in 2019.
I always thought of him as a principled man before that saga, but was very very disappointed. Then his true colours came out.
But, hey, Misbah helped India win two World cups as our 12th man. I would actually recommend him for Arjuna Award, India's highest sporting honor just for that.