Pakistan’s Test captaincy musical chairs
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/United-Arab-Emirates-c3033.
The move by the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 Cricket Board has come under criticism. Misbah has been out of form and has been out of the national side after the 2010 ICC T20 World Cup, and missed all the matches in England this August.
Misbah, unfortunately has not been performing outstandingly in domestic cricket ever since his name got scrapped out of the national squad. Everyone thought that Misbah-ul-Haq’s career was now over. But he has managed to pull off a shocker for many, by not
only making a comeback in the national team, but also becoming the captain of the Test side.
Misbah has reacted strongly against the criticism, and wants to be given a chance to prove himself as a player and as a captain of Pakistan. While many have come out giving statements against the appointment of Misbah-ul-Haq, former Pakistan coach, Geoff
Lawson, has come out in support of the middle order batsman by saying that Misbah-ul-Haq has the best cricketing brain in the Pakistan team and Lawson believes that Misbah will do fine leading the side.
Misbah is Pakistan’s seventh Test Captain in just three years, which clearly shows Pakistan Cricket Board’s impatience towards players leading the Test side, Misbah-ul-Haq who made his Test debut on 8th http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 has not played
a Test for his national side since 26th December 2009, which was against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746. It will, perhaps be a tough task for Misbah to come back in the team and then lead it to victory after being out of international cricket for almost a year.
The Test team problems started right after http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Inzamam-ul-Haq-c64383 retired from international cricket on October 5th, 2007. A junior player, Shoaib Malik, was made captain of the Pakistani squad, which angered many senior players, who were hoping to be
given the reins of captaincy after Inzamam’s retirement. This is the time when troubles within the team started surfacing.
When things seemed to be getting out of hand the Pakistan Cricket Board was quick to make another change in captaincy, this time making the much respected player, Younis Khan, the captain. But he too faced the axe when, along with other players, he was banned
by the Pakistan Cricket Board over allegations of match fixing (which were not proved later).
Then the soft spoken Mohammad Yousaf became captain. But the disastrous performance against the Australians resulted in the ouster of Mohammad Yousaf as captain.
Then the One Day captain, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482, was forced by the cricket board to come out of Test retirement and take over as Test captain. However, Afridi felt uncomfortable in the first Test match against Australia and soon refused to play anymore Tests, which
left the PCB with no choice but to change the captain in the middle of the series. Vice captain, Salman Butt, was next in line for Test captaincy of Pakistan.
Salman’s reign as captain came to an abrupt end when he, along with two other players were suspended by the International Cricket Council from all forms of cricket, after allegations of spot-fixing surfaced against the trio. With Salman Butt out of the picture,
it was time again for the PCB to appoint a Test captain for the upcoming Test series against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 in the United Arab Emirates.
That is how Misbah-ul-Haq’s came to be chosen as Test captain against the Proteas. However, the big question still remains can Misbah lead the Pakistan team to victory after not playing an international Test match for almost one year?
Tags: