Wednesday, January 25, 2012

How Good is Misbah Ul Haq Really?

Did you know that his full name is Misbah Ul Haq Khan Niazi?

Do you know who else shares the same last name?


If being an "Ul-Haq" wasn't enough, he is also a "Khan" and a "Niazi".

No wonder Misbah is well on his way to being the best Pakistan captain ever. Or the best captain ever.

His critics will always point to the World T20 final in 2007 and the ODI World Cup semi final in 2011. One game denied Pakistan a world cup victory, and another that denied Pakistan a place in the World Cup Final. To date, Misbah is blamed for the defeats, but the critics forget that if it weren't for Misbah, Pakistan would not have even got close to victory in those games.

Lets forget those blemishes for a bit and lets take a look at what Misbah has been able to achieve as captain of Pakistan.

He returned to the team as captain in 2010, right after the spot fixing scandal had hit the country like a storm. The team was down and out and there seemed to be no coming back from the dark depths that Pakistan cricket had drowned itself into.

18 months since and it has been one hell of a turnaround.

Sure Misbah is not solely responsible for that turnaround but he has been at the helm and he has played a big part in it.

The performances speak for themselves, but even more than that Misbah has been able to lift a team whose spirits had been crippled, whose confidence had nose dived, and whose unity and discipline was being questioned by everyone concerned.

A glance at Misbah's performance as a captain shows unbelievable results. He has captained Pakistan in 14 test matches, 14 ODIs, and 5 T20Is, a total of 33 international matches, out of which Pakistan have lost only 2!

Yes. Only 2. Pakistan have lost only 1 test and 1 ODI under Misbah.

That is it!

It can't only be luck for this long.

This gives Misbah the best record as captain ever. Sure he hasn't captained for as long as other players have captained their countries, but even then, this record is phenomenal!


Not only has Misbah succeeded as a captain during this time, but he has also succeeded as a batsman.

He has led from the front on all occasions. He has relished the captaincy and has become the backbone of Pakistan's batting line up. His overall record is very good anyway, but as captain that same record becomes a great record.


With the way Misbah batted today against England and took Pakistan out of a precarious position, I believe that all these records will only improve for as long as he captains Pakistan.

Misbah has been a knight in shining armour, if there ever was one, for Pakistan cricket. If it weren't for him, who knows where we might have been today.

Statistics never paint the complete story, but they do provide a glimpse of how good or bad someone has been.

And all this just tells me that Misbah has been really very very good, if not great.

(Credit to Analyst Maaz for the captaincy record table)

Make your pitch on this post...



Labels: , , , ,


3 Pitched:

  1. JehanJ said...
     

    Wow! Never realized that his numbers made such good reading. Like u say its not just the stats that make it impressive, but more so the fact that he has done it during arguably one of the toughest periods in Pakistani cricket...

  2. Unknown said...
     

    Well written. This should also shut up all the critics who refer to him has "tuk tuk". It his tuk tuk attitude that the other players have also adopted that give Pakistani score some chance of defense.I am sure Strauss and co. would have loved to tuk tuk yesterday as they tried to over come 145 in almost 1.5 days.

  3. Muzzamil said...
     

    Shoib akhtar and Mohammad sami both are MATCH WINNERS.But Wasim Akram,Waqar Younis,Misbah ul haq,Kamran Akmal,Umer Akmal,Adnan Akmal are MATCH FIXERS.

Post a Comment