Is Misbah-ul-Haq a convenient scapegoat of Pakistan cricket?

Imran Aslam: If MoYo did not take on the responsibility and bat at no. 3 Misbah should not either? Brilliant logic indeed!!! Oh and btw, MoYo just captained Pakistan in a grand total of 8 ODI’s with 4 of those instances coming in 2003-04 when he was deputizing for Inzi – so he effectively captained in 4 ODIs (against Australia) when the batting was struggling and he did not promote himself.

Q: This is typical of blaming the critic of not doing something instead of defending the person being criticized. So what if MoYo did not take the responsibility? The fact itself is untrue however. Mohammad Yousuf batted at number 3 in 45 innings in ODIs, compared to Misbah who has batted at that position only once!

4. Pakistan needs Inzamam Ul Haq as the batting coach

Mr. Ansari: I would say that Yousuf and Inzamam adversely affected Pakistan cricket by introducing a needless religious focus in the dressing room. Now, Yousuf is lobbying for Inzamam to become Pakistan’s new coach. While Inzamam was a great batsman, his technique wasn’t fabulous in testing conditions. One has to look at Inzamam’s World Cup record, where aside from 1992, he was a huge disappointment. Furthermore, Inzamam’s record in Australia and South Africa, where the conditions really test a batsmen’s technique, was quite ordinary. In Australia he averaged a mediocre 30, while in South Africa, he scored at an average of 31 runs per Test match innings.

Imran Aslam: Inzi has been one of the very best batsmen produced by Pakistan (if not the best) and if our batsmen need a good batting coach and a local one Inzi is probably the best option out there. Yes he did not average very high in Aus and SA but batting conditions in England are equally hard (maybe tougher due to the swing and seam) and I remember Inzi producing some gems out there. As for his WC record – I remember Inzi doing well in the 96 WC and reasonably well in the 99 WC as well (his 81 against Australia being a treat to watch).

Q: Mr. Ansari has completely confused me here. In trying to defend Misbah, he has suddenly shifted focus to criticizing the best batsman ever produced by Pakistan. His technique was not fabulous? You gotta be kidding me! Not a good record in World Cups? Ha! He played an instrumental role in guiding Pakistan towards World Cup glory in 1992. He averaged 48 in the 1996 World Cup, and he was our second highest run scorer, behind Saeed Anwar, in the 1999 world cup.

If there is anyone who should be coaching Pakistan’s batsmen it should be one of Hanif Mohammad, Javed Miandad, or Inzamam Ul Haq. But even they would not be able to change Misbah’s mindset.

5. Saeed Ajmal would be a better captain than Misbah

Mr. Ansari: both Yousuf and Akhtar are insisting that Ajmal would be a better captain than Misbah… the complaints Yousuf and Akhtar have about Misbah involve his batting. Well, newsflash, Ajmal can’t actually bat. On the field, Misbah is a decent captain. His field settings are on the mark and he attacks new batsmen by blocking singles and employing close in fielders. He is certainly a better captain than Yousuf ever was. If the complaints about Misbah’s captaincy are about his approach to batting, why replace him with a bowler and at what cost? Will Ajmal continue to bowl as well under the pressure of captaincy? Will this appointment create rifts in the dressing room? Keep in mind, Misbah was the one who brought Ajmal into the team, so it would surely create friction in the dressing room.

Imran Aslam: Misbah being a better captain than MoYo does not make Misbah a good captain (again also remember MoYo was never a long term captain). The complaints against Misbah are for both his batting and his captaincy and these are 2 separate chains of complaints. Saying Saeed Ajmal can’t replace Misbah as captain because Saeed Ajmal can’t bat is probably the most ridiculous thing I have heard in a very long time. Regarding his field placings and attacking captaincy, I wonder what cricket this author has been watching because in the version I got to see there have been blatant mistakes in his captaincy, starting from team selection, going on to batting order, bowling changes and field placings. Promoting Sohail Tanvir in the middle of a crucial chase, not playing JK, not utilizing Hafeez enough as a bowler when the pacers are being taken to the cleaners are just a few recent examples.

Q: Whoever said that a bowler can’t be a captain? Remember Courtney Walsh? Waqar Younis? Misbah the captain and misbah the batsman, both have flaws, but both problems are not interlinked. Speculation of what Ajmal’s captaincy will result in are baseless. Why would it create a rift if Misbah and Ajmal are that close? Once again, attacking MoYo will not change the problems that are inherent in Misbah.

6. Misbah only makes runs for himself, not the team

Mr. Ansari: This is a theory that comes less from experts and more from some members of our public. Cricket is a team game and one cricketer can’t win a match alone. I remember when Sachin Tendulkar was India’s only good batsmen; he would score countless runs, but often end up on the losing side. Was this Sachin’s fault, or the fault of the rest of his team? Keep in mind that Misbah almost always comes to bat in a crisis, where he is forced to drop anchor. Does the Misbah propeller spin slowly because it is designed that way or because it has to carry the work load of 10 other propellers?

Let’s look at one of the few matches where Misbah did not come in under pressure. During the first Test match against South Africa, Misbah came in after a fantastic opening stand and scored an excellent century that was fairly aggressive by his standards.

Imran Aslam: First of all, lets not talk about test matches suddenly in the middle of an ODI related discussion because these are 2 very different games. Secondly, if Misbah does come in to bat in a crisis every single time, why does he not assess his top order and see the reasons behind him coming in a crisis? Having said that, I dug out some stats a couple of days back in response to some post and saw that from all the times Misbah has batted at no 5, he has come in to bat with less than 50 runs on the board only 25% of the time or so.

Q: Why is the example one of a test match innings? Neither I, nor majority of the public, have an issue with Misbah the test captain or Misbah the test batsman. That is where he belongs and that is where he should stay. My sole issue is with his presence in the ODI team. He is not good for the ODI team.

To conclude, I would just like to ask Mr. Ansari and the public one question – over the past 3 years, our test performances and T20 performances have been very good. However, in ODIs, we have been quite pathetic. It is quite obvious to me that there are issues within the ODI team that are not prevalent in the Test or T20 setup. It is obvious to me that despite his batting form, Misbah, has not been able to bring out the best in his team in ODIs. Why isn’t someone willing to do something about this?