This is what is needed
The application, mental toughness, gutsiness, maturity, responsibility, application and decision making Misbah has demonstrated and installed as skipper is something Afridi could not achieve in his wildest dreams as far as the captaincy front is concerned!
Yet ours fans are reluctant to praise him and seem to be jealous and fearful of him taking over the credit and recognition from Afridi. At the end of the day, this is Pakistan and not "Afridistan." Our honest analysis and constructive criticisms consider what is for the better and common good of Pakistan Cricket as we want to get the best out of it.
Yet ours fans are reluctant to praise him and seem to be jealous and fearful of him taking over the credit and recognition from Afridi. At the end of the day, this is Pakistan and not "Afridistan." Our honest analysis and constructive criticisms consider what is for the better and common good of Pakistan Cricket as we want to get the best out of it.
Team Misbah= Threatening, fighting, compact, controlled, organised, balanced, mindful, structured
Team Afridi=Instinct and aggression yes, but no plan, guidance, responsibility, or tactical awareness in order to imagine him being able to become successful and guide the team through
Leave personal favouritism and entertainment individualism out of the equation and on these basis honestly give your verdict for who is the better short team captain which can maximise the effectiveness and bring the best out of the team? My vote would go Misbah any day of the weak personally speaking. Team Misbah has made Pakistan Proud and is the best way forward for the WC captaincy. There is a strong rumour that if Misbah successfully leads Pakistan to a series whitewash at Wellington in the 2nd Test, he will continue captaincy for the ODI Series and subsequently World Cup too. In the short term and bigger picture, a captain like him is where Pakistan can unite, pride themselves on professionalism, show means of solid temperament and innovative braininess is where I can be highly confident that Pakistan can go far in the World Cup. Under Afridi, this is by no means necessarily the case. Make the lives of fans and players easier is a request I give the PCB management and appoint the man that deserves the captaincy and will get the best out of the team in Misbah.
Hamilton Test Match Review
A new year and a new beginning saw Pakistan march to a remarkable 10 wicket victory at Seddon Park to take a moral boosting and thoroughly deserving 1-0 lead in the Test Series with a game to follow in due course.
The highlight and talking point of the match was undoubtedly the manner in which New Zealand were demolished within a single session of play in the evening segment of the 3rd day. Pakistan resumed on day 3 trailing by a margin of 40 runs with 6 first innings scalps left. They managed to stretch it to an invaluable lead of 92 runs once the first innings was completed. New Zealand got off promisingly as they reached 33-0 by tea time.
However, after that, it was all about Pakistan domination which totally controlled proceedings in style and strongly advanced the game forward. Wahab Riaz and Abdur Rehman bowled unchanged and reaped the rewards as Pakistan closed in on victory. From being 60/2 they were 61/6. The two left armers ran through New Zealand's line up with Abdur Rehman bowling with craftiness and guile which enabled him to build up pressure and dictate terms whereas Wahab Riaz managed to successfully extract some appreciable reverse swing to trouble the Kiwis top order.
It was a truly astonishing exhibition we were witnessing. Umar Gul polished off the effort by claiming the final 3 wickets as the Kiwis faltered to a disappointing 110 all out on what looked a pretty decent surface for batting in all fairness. The Pakistani openers reached the 19 runs required untroubled to ensure they won by an overwhelming 10 wickets.
Pakistan now have an opportunity to win a Test Series which is something they have not achieved since the days of Bob Woolmer in 2006 when they defeated the West Indies 2-0 on home soil. Ideally, a 2-0 whitewash will be absolutely fantastic, but a draw will also do pretty nicely when the 2nd and final Test gets under way at Wellington on Friday in order to ensure Pakistan take the series honours.
Looking ahead to Wellington
The significance of this Test Match cannot be stressed enough if we have a look at Pakistan's last 10 Test Match Series where they have not won a single Test Series. Therefore, this test match is of utmost significance as Pakistan look to change this and ensure they comfortably take the series honours under the impressive and responsible leadership of Misbah Ul Haq. Below is the record for one and all to visualise. The days of Bob and Inzy have been greatly missed. Latest first of course.
Drawn 0-0 vs. SA home (November 2010)
Lost 3-1 vs. England away (August 2010)
Drawn 1-1 vs. Australia home (July 2010)
Lost 3-0 vs. Australia away (January 2010)
Drawn 1-1 vs. New Zealand away (December 2009)
Lost 2-0 vs. Sri Lanka away (July 2009)
Drawn 0-0 vs. Sri Lanka home (March 2009)
Lost 1-0 vs. India away (December 2007)
Lost 1-0 vs. SA home (October 2007)
Lost 2-1 vs. SA away (February 2007)
Personally really looking forward to Wellington and am pumped up for the occasion as well as highly confident with this well organised, fighting, determined, balanced, united, gutsy, mentally tough and very well composed outfit under an excellent leader and well selected line up. It will be bitterly disappointing if they are unable to take the series honours at this stage. Fingers tightly crossed, they go well and give us something to smile about. The eager countdown to Wellington has begun.
4 comments:
Maaz
Excellent post, I think you have analyzed th situation honestly and realistically.
Afridi is just a brainless idiot who has no leadership skills, no game awareness or sense of responsibility, the thing which pisses me off the most is that he never shows the intent to be responsible. What a waste of talent.
I don't know how long Misbah will play like the way he is playing, as under other captains he simply refuses to show up. But the way he has lead the team against SA and NewZealand and has lead from the front my vote is for him.
The performances against NewZealand and SA clearly shows what the so called star players were doing, there is a lesson for for those who worship star players that the thing which counts the most is integrity and ground performance past performances count for nothing.
The Kiwis made the fatal mistake of preparing a subcontinent like track they never stood a chance to win on such a track, I expect a minefield in Wellington or atleast a pitch which will greatly favor their seam bowlers.
Well it's good to see that Misbah has been named in the ODI squad and that too as vice captain. Afridi must clearly be feeling the pressure. Just anyone but him as a captain and Pakistan stands a considerably better chance. We can do well under him, but it's really hard to imagine that happening and we will be heavily relying on some clinical performances and individual brilliances. Misbah is good enough to play all 3 formats for Pakistan and provides a balance to the side too as he is an anchor role consolidator and we simply cannot afford to have aggressive stroke makers all the way down. His catching, thoughtfulness and input needs to be utilised by Afridi because he simply has no leadership qualities with the exception of energy and motivation, but every single skipper in the world has that in their ranks. Simple concept is a good player does not mean he is a good captain. Misbah can maximise effectiveness and raise standards. It was an enterprising, creative, dynamic and intelligent appointment. We had no better choice at the time, especially as Younis Khan had not formally announced his availabilities on the matter.
Asad Shafiq came from absolutely nowhere and has shown he can be about 10 times as good as Fawad Alam. To be honest with you, if Fawad had been playing Test Cricket, his career would have been over by now. He cannot negotiate with the short ball and is an easy candidate to dismiss against quality spin too. All people who watch cricket from a seriously analytically advanced angle thoroughly well know he is excessively overhyped and is a fluke of a player. I approve of his omission from the 30 man squad for the WC. He was never going to bring much value to the team and other candidates stood a considerably better chance of doing that. The selectors have considered the bigger picture, all this selectorial nepotism is garbage, he was an overrated player by his deceptive domestic stats. I can name at least 10 players from the domestic arena who are better than and would/could do better than him from a team perspective. The amount of public sympathy this guy manages to extract says something about the sheer foolishness of the Pakistani fan base.
Misbah is the Brilliant batsman in Pakistan Cricket
Pakistan will take on Srilanka in 5th Odi today.. Pakistan already won the series. And Qualify for Champions Trophy 2017. Watch Pakistan vs Srilanka 5th ODI Live Streaming
Post a Comment