How will the whitewashes in New Zealand and Australia effect Misbah's stature as a captain? For example, if we compare him to MS Dhoni, who led India to a 1-15 win loss record outside Asia, it greatly diminished his persona as a test captain. Similarly there is a high chance, that getting blanked in New Zealand, Australia and South Africa will greatly effect Misbah's legacy as a captain. What do you guys think ?
Misbah's legacy isn't linked with results now.
People who like him will still somehow defend him IF the series is lost, and People who hate him will obviously put the blame on his shoulder, even if we win his haters will try to take that away from him.
But his overall image view isn't going to change.
You see, Misbah's test captaincy career has had checkpoints. Checkpoints as such that whenever he achieves something, those achievements wouldn't be forgotten and he would be praised for those achievements until he achieves another big thing, for which he would get more praises. If he suffers a loss, people ignore it generally and look back at his last point of win(his check point) which is also his last achievement.
For example, the test whitewash Misbah faced at the hands of South Africa. Even yet people overall didn't care, they remembered the England whitewash and accepted we couldn't win every single series.
Had Misbah retired during the World Cup, he would had been admired, but someone as the second best after Imran, but then the England test series allowed Misbah to be admired at the same level as Imran, and that so after we drawn a series not even won it. That alone tells you his legacy.
He also crossed another milestone of captaining and winning most test for Pakistan Cricket, over passing Imran.
If Pakistan goes on to a whitewash against Australia, his legacy won't grow, but his legacy won't drop either, as he has crossed that England series checkpoint.
However, another thing that needs to be remember is Misbah shouldn't extend his career too much. If he extends his career and ends up getting a few losses, then his legacy losses out. This is an example we have saw of Inzamam, who in his end days was a hated cricketer. Even Younis Khan has to deal with this, as he gained alot of admiration and respect after the world t20 win, but his afterwards odi performance changed his liking in the fans.
