Pakistan Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq has identified the paucity of 50-over cricket at domestic level as the main cause of the team’s current ODI struggles. Pakistan’s domestic structure has undergone several changes in recent years and Misbah said the one-day game has been getting the short shrift.
Pakistan has struggled in ODI cricket in recent times and find themselves in ninth place in the ICC rankings which is a stark contrast to Test cricket where they are the top ranked team with 111 points just one higher than arch-rivals India who have 110 points.
Misbah though has put the blame on the country’s domestic structure rather than the talent coming through Pakistan’s youth cricket.
“While a Pakistani domestic cricketer may play at least ten to twenty first-class matches a season, he doesn’t get the same match practice in the 50-over format,” Misbah told ESPNcricinfo. “I have long been saying that we need to lay greater emphasis on one-day cricket in our domestic system, and play more one-day games, because you can’t evolve by playing a maximum of five 50-over matches a year in the domestic circuit.”
The 42-year-old, who was captain of the ODI side for four years, stepped down post Pakistan’s disastrous outing in the 2015 World Cup. He had mixed success in his tenure, winning 47 out of 86 games played while current skipper Azhar Ali has only managed nine wins in 25 matches. Misbah though has insisted that captain is not the only one who should be blamed for poor performance of the team.
“In Pakistan, there is a perception that the captain is the only one responsible for everything. Cricket is a team game and every player has to contribute. We used every possible talent in the country but it didn’t work. Whenever you are forced to change, that is because the team isn’t performing. Unfortunately, in one-day cricket, the boys haven’t performed well, like they have done in Test cricket. The bowling, after Saeed Ajmal, hasn’t done enough and the batting has never been consistent”, the 42-year-old added.
In the search for solutions to the team’s ODI slump, Pakistan’s selectors have tried well over 40 players since the start of Misbah’s captaincy, in a seemingly never-ending transition.
“When the team doesn’t perform and keeps losing, then changes are necessary,” Misbah said. “But when you start winning then you can back the talent and just go into the future with that. But that wasn’t really the case for Pakistan. We tried a lot of players in a bid to find a good combination, but it didn’t give results and players were dropped because they never gave us a chance to retain them.
“Nobody wants to carry on with failure and if a player is stuck with his weakness and not improving, regardless of his potential, you have to drop him and move on. This not only good for the team but also for the player because you can’t allow him to play with consistent failure – it is really unfair as it can cost him his career, so you have to think tactically as well.”
Pakistan have 14 ODIs scheduled before the window for direct qualification into the 2019 World Cup in England closes and Misbah has backed coach Mickey Arthur’s efforts to make sure they are among the top eight teams by the September 2017 deadline.
“The important thing is that he is trying to bring a structural change from the top,” Misbah said. “There was connection missing in between and that is being connected. Players’ fitness, bowling actions, batting techniques are being taken into consideration before selecting a squad to represent the country. Fitness is a major component and players must realise that.”