Misbah-ul-Haq is not the type to customarily meet veneration in our neck of the woods. He doesn’t exaggerate the displacement between his shoulders with the air of an enraged warrior nor does he wears his religion on his sleeve. You can dig as deep as you want, and will fail to wheedle out even a hint of controversy. His persona, just like his batting, is calm, composed and calculating. He doesn’t have the X-factor or that burst of explosion that we admire dutifully.
Despite never quite endearing himself to the masses, a la Afridi, Misbah’s career is following the opposite bearing of what every man and his dog had predicted following the Mohali farce. The unanimously sanctioned scapegoat of the catastrophic World Cup evening looked predestined to nosedive into cricketing oblivion. Au contraire, here he is leading the team unswervingly and being recognized by the ICC with ‘Cricketer of the Year’ and ‘Test Player of the Year’ nominations.
Misbah averages a striking 61.00 in ODIs this year and a staggering 70.80 in Tests since December 2009. It is not merely the numbers that catch the eye but his uncanny presence at the crease when the team needs him the most. He has been, hands down, the best batsmen for us recently. Add his dependably robust captaincy to his responsible batting and one sees the raison d’etre behind his recognition by the ICC.
Our youthful cricket team is scheduled to embark upon the Zimbabwe tour on the August 25, and Misbah is making all the right noises. Touted as the springboard for the young blood, Misbah’s 37 years and 85 days meanwhile are cause of serious foreboding for some pundits. It is expounded that his sell-by date is more or less up, thus the urgency to groom a new captain to replace him. This indeed is funny, for Misbah is a late bloomer, and for him, so it seems, “age is merely a number”.
At 37, Misbah is as fit as our cricketers come. You’d hardly ever see him sweating buckets even in scorching conditions, or giving the cameramen a picturesque comic moment while fielding. A rare one from our stock, for he keeps his diet in check, and is a regular in the gym. His prudent lifestyle ensures that he is not injury prone, and resultantly his body lasts longer. So the question: is it just the number 37 that is causing all the cynicism? Yet, in all honesty, neither Misbah’s performance nor his body give the impression of deteriorating any time soon.
Let’s juxtapose the skipper’s case with Mohammad Yousuf, who recently announced his retirement for the umpteenth time. In terms of sheer batting prowess, Misbah and Yousuf is a mismatch. The latter is one of the most gifted batsmen we have ever produced in every possible facet, and despite the unceremonious end, he is recognized as one of the true greats of Pakistan cricket. However, the fact worth pointing out is that while both batsmen are 37, the gap in their respective fitness condition is massive. Yousuf’s lack of fitness eventually detached him from the limited-overs format in 2007 and he never truly came back in the side after that.
Misbah in contrast, is not as talented but has maximised his potential thanks to a better mental approach to the game, and by keeping himself as fit as a fiddle.
Experts routinely overlook a more significant factor while writing off cricketers in their thirties. While physical wear and tear gets its toll, a lack of appetite for the game runs down the clock on one’s career more abruptly. When you’ve won a plethora of accolades you lose the hunger to go on, and this is exactly what happened to Yousuf. On the contrary, Misbah has just arrived at the peak of his career and one gets the impression that the craving for more is still very much there.
Misbah’s career is a veritable enigma. With Misbah the jury only manages to perceive ‘that’ scoop down Sreesanth’s throat in 2007, and does not acknowledge that he was our best batsman in the tournament. Even digging us out of the quagmire in the T20 final to take us that close was a Herculean task. The blocked shots at Mohali are etched in memory, but his inspiring displays over the past couple of years are discarded out of hand.
In Misbah we have that rare breed of cricketers who stand up to responsibility, and stay clear of the off-field antics. His personality oozes class and composure, and while the number 37 might estrange some, our captain still has a lot to offer as our cricket looks to navigate through this transitional phase.
PCB’s bewildering tactic
Anyone with half a cricketing brain would tell you that we won the T20 World Cup 2009, in spite of Younis Khan’s captaincy not because of it. While Misbah pilots all three formats commandingly, the PCB has apparently decided to reduce his burden by rummaging around for an ODI captain so that Misbah can focus on Tests. The idea is attractive, since it could allow Misbah to further prolong his career, but asking Younis to captain the side is bewildering!
If we exclude a couple of his performances against cricketing powerhouses Ireland and Kenya, Younis has scored a grand total of four half centuries in 45 ODIs since December 2008. Two of which were in dead rubbers after we had already lost the ODI series in Sri Lanka. Not only does Younis not warrant a place in the ODI side, his previous tenure as the skipper of the side created a mutiny of sorts. Anyone with half a cricketing brain would know that we won the T20 World Cup in 2009, in spite of Younis’ captaincy not because of it.
Younis is undoubtedly a class act in the longer version of the game, but has never been able to cut it in the overs-limited format, despite what Imran Khan might say about it. He should focus on Test cricket, as his regular no-shows in ODIs would further tarnish his repute. The ODIs are increasingly becoming high scoring affairs, and Younis’ discomfort is there for all to see whenever the need to up the ante is required.
In the 223 ODI matches he has played thus far, the only innings worthy of matching his inflated repute is the 117 he scored at Mohali in November 2007 and that too wasn’t without its fair share of fortune. You know the divine powers are with you if you top-edge Sourav Ganguly behind the wicket-keeper for a six.
