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Missing: Misbah Ul-Haq
By Tabrez Janjua for Stani Army in Pakistan Cricket
80 ViewsPakistan have dropped Misbah Ul-Haq from all three squads for the upcoming games against New Zealand. As a big fan of Misbah, I think this is a big mistake and one which will show come the end of the New Zealnd series’.
Compared to 2007-8, Misbah has not had a great time of it this year, visibly struggling to play his natural game. Even though, his ODI average has still been a useful 33.33, better than Shoab Malik, Kamran Akmal, Shahid Afridi and our captain at the time of writing, Younis Khan. In case you don’t believe me, click here.
The figures above show that it was a not only Misbah who struggled but for some reason he has been the one sacrificed. When looking at an individual’s performances, they must, as above, be put into context. Pakistan have played on some tough batting pitches of late in Sri Lanka and the UAE. In the 5 match ODI series against Australia in the UAE, the team batting first scored over 210 on only one occasion. Our batting performances in general have not been great of late.
Add to this the fact that Misbah usually comes in lower down the order where it is not possible to make large scores and where there is little time to settle. He also has had to often sacrifice his wicket for the sake of the team.
At 35, the argument may be that Pakistan are looking to the future and bringing in young talent but this is not an argument I like as it has its flaws and people seem to use it as if youth guarantees success. Are we always going to be playing our cricket in the future? It seems that way. The future is in the future, what about the here and now? We must get the balance right.
Having picked such large squads, it’s even more dumbfounding that Misbah was not included. The squads have been filled with openers as Wasim at Cricket Files rightly argues, but the the middle order is left looking weak. Salman Butt who has been brought back for no reason, could easily have been sacrificed for Misbah.
Chief selector Iqbal Qasim said of Misbah’s exclusion: “He has been given rest because we think he is under pressure and needs time to regroup himself,”, But, when someone is out of form, they need games, not rest. A word in his ear but a vote of confidence by retaining him in the squads would have done Misbah much more good than dropping him so he could ‘regroup’
The weak Pakistan domestic leagues have attributed a false sense of ability to all the new faces included in the announced squads for the sake of the tried and tested Misbah Ul-Haq. These new faces will inevitably struggle on the unforgiving stage which is international cricket.
Squads:
Tests: Salman Butt, Khurrum Manzoor, Imran Farhat, Younis Khan (capt), Mohammad Yousuf, Shoaib Malik, Fawad Alam, Faisal Iqbal, Kamran Akmal (wk), Danish Kaneria, Saeed Ajmal, Yasir Arafat, Umar Gul, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Aamer, Abdur Rauf, Umar Akmal, Sarfraz Ahmad
One-dayers: Salman Butt, Imran Farhat, Khalid Latif, Younis Khan (capt), Mohammad Yousuf, Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal, Kamran Akmal (wk), Abdul Razzaq, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Shahid Afridi, Saeed Ajmal, Umar Gul, Mohammad Aamer, Rao Iftikhar Anjum, Wahab Riaz
Twenty20: Khalid Latif, Imran Nazir, Umar Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi (capt), Kamran Akmal (wk), Abdul Razzaq, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Umar Gul, Mohammad Aamer, Rao Iftikhar Anjum, Saeed Ajmal, Imran Farhat, Fawad Alam, Sohail Tanvir
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October 24th, 2009 at 8:03 am
I’ll surely miss him….But why did they drop him?
October 24th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Christopher
Misbah was out of form and his place was taken over by his domestic team mate Umar Akmal.
He has been rested for the Kiwi series to improve his form and will make a return for the Australian series if he proves his form in the QEA trophy.
But as Stani pointed out the form of YK, Malik and Yousaf was also questionable but PCB hasn’t selected any player as their back up.
Younis instead of playing the domestic tournament was doing deep sea fishing and Afridi was busy playing politics in the team both players need to improve their form.
October 25th, 2009 at 1:30 am
Posh
As Wasim has rightly said, he was dropped due to poor form even though others of similar poor form have strangely been persisted with.
Wasim
Yes, that’s the benefit of being captain and vice-captain, it makes it harder for you to get dropped. People forget how good Misbah was in 07-08. There was a big hole in our batting and he filled it and the fact that he did it so quick and without fuss has may be contributed to people not realising his value.
October 28th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
I know it must be different in Pakistan, but in India, we all rate Misbah so highly that most of us are quite shocked by him being dropped in all formats. I am actually trying to recollect his form in the past couple of years. In 2007, he was my favourite Pak player.
October 28th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
Rayden
My feelings exactly. I was taken aback by his de-selection. They do say its so he can find form but it has this feeling of “we’re going with the youngsters so goodbye Misbah” about it. If that is the case, he will have to perform some superhuman feats just to get noticed let alone get back into the side.
I think any bowling attack that sees Misbah come in in the latter overs know exactly how dangerous he can be.
October 29th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
I think right now both Pak and Indian boards are obsessed with this youngsters thing. While we do need to nurture few of them who have shown a lot of promise, we cant just forget the older, experienced players. Problem with the youngsters so far is that none of them have really shown much maturity even after playing for 1 or 2 years. Really hope Misbah will be back soon. He is a great player to watch for all cricket fans.
October 31st, 2009 at 6:06 pm
Rayden
I agree but I would say that the Indian youngsters showed much more potential on an international stage where as the Pakistan ones were plucked straight from a very weak domestic league.
Another point is the fact that cricket as a sport does not hold advantage to youth as much as other sports do. In other sports, there are many advantages to bringing in a young guy but the various facets of cricket mean that cricket is not as such.