Is Misbah ul Haq the Greatest Captain of Pakistan Cricket Ever? Even Better Than Imran Khan?

By Sikander Hayat

No, he should not retire because Pakistan needs him to perform and until such time when he stops performing or Pakistan starts losing, Misbah should captain Pakistan. He is the greatest cricket captain in terms of his own performance and the impact he has on the team in terms of leadership.

 Misbah has given Pakistan stability when team was in the midst of multiple crises and needed a calm hand to steer it away from the abyss. In Misbah’s case, age has proved to be just a number and is a template for what an ideal Pakistan captain should look & behave like.

People will understand what they have lost only when he will leave the stage and they will miss his  touch. People like Imran Khan were able to succeed in an atmosphere where they were surrounded by great players like Javed Miandad, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Salim Malik, Abdul Qadir e.t.c but Misbah’s team was full

of half-baked players like Akmal brothers. His bowling attacked lacked the penetration of Wasim & Waqar and had to contend with Bilawal Bhatti type characters.

With a very limited set of players Misbah has become the greatest test captain Pakistan ever had in terms of number of wins.

Most players lose their touch as they approach their twilight years but Misbah’s records have come in last two to three years. Fastest test fifty, fastest test hundred equaling Sir Viv Richards, most wins as test captain,

best batting average of any Pakistan test captain to name but a few records now Misbah holds.

Away from cold hard numbers, his impact has been even greater as he has nurtured spinners like Saeed

Ajmal, Yasir Shah, Zulfiqar Babar and brought Pakistan’s true domestic cricket talent to the fore. After many years of failure of bringing players straight from under 19, Misbah’s team had a higher average age of around

30 years which produced tremendous results for Pakistan cricket.

Pakistan cricket team is the group of global nomads with no home series in last decade but the sheer pluck

with which this team has taken everything on the chin is an exercise in sheer brilliance. Misbah can take a lot

of credit for this success. A true gentleman of the game of cricket and hopefully Pakistan will remember him as “Misbah the Great”.