Is Misbah-ul-Haq a convenient scapegoat of Pakistan cricket?

Yesterday there was an interesting blog post on the Express Tribune. It was titled: 6 reasons why Misbah Ul Haq should not be blamed.

The author of the article, Mr. Noman Ansari, provides us with 6 anti-Misbah notions (or assumptions as he calls them), which are publicly held by the vast majority of Pakistan fans and then dismisses them.

The 6 “assumptions” are:

Assumption 1: We have a team of lions
Assumption 2: the rest of the team tries to bat like Misbah
Assumption 3: Misbah should bat at number three and lead from the front
Assumption 4: Pakistan needs Inzamamul Haq as the batting coach
Assumption 5: Saeed Ajmal would be a better captain than Misbah
Assumption 6: Misbah only makes runs for himself, and not the team

Lets take a look at them one by one.

I will first provide with a gist of what Mr. Ansari wrote; then I will provide Imran Aslam’s point of view, and then my own opinion.

1. We have a team of lions

Mr. Ansari: …the Pakistani cricket team is certainly not packing lions. Our opening batsman is Mohammad Hafeez, who going by his scores is more of a duck than a lion. The other openers such as Nasir Jamshed and Ahmed Shehzad are promising, but still far from consistent. Sohaib Maqsood could be our next big thing, but needs grooming and apparently has a history of fitness issues. Meanwhile, our last next big thing, Umar Akmal, although supremely talented, bats like he had been dropped as a baby by his nurse. This could have been the same hospital where Shahid Afridi was born… we are less a team of lions, and more like a misfit zoo with old animals.

Imran Aslam: his first argument here is about Hafeez being a duck and not a lion – completely agreed. However, is it my fault that Hafeez continues to bat in the top 3 despite having proven very successfully that he is not capable of this or might Misbah have something to do with deciding the batting order? Then he talks about Shahzad and Jamshed – how come these 2 bat with a completely different intent in T20s? and then Afridi, again is it my fault that our team combination was such that Afridi was batting at 7 when everyone and their dog knows that he should not be batting above 8.

Q: If Hafeez is a duck then should Misbah not be blamed for keeping a duck in the team? Remember that the selectors finally put their foot down when they dropped Hafeez from the test squad for the series against South Africa, despite resistance from Misbah. Misbah has been instrumental in developing the clout that Hafeez now enjoys within the management and board. I am actually a Hafeez supporter; I think that through his bowling he commands a position in the limited overs teams. However, given his batting, he should be batting down the order. But again isn’t Misbah to blame for maintaining Hafeez’ position in the top order?

Dropping Nasir from the ODIs in SA, giving him a dressing down during the Champions Trophy, and playing with his confidence are all Misbah’s fault. Ahmed Shehzad has been superb at the top of the order; please remember that Shehzad was kept away from the ODI side for the longest time by Misbah because he preferred the likes of Imran Farhat and did not want an Afridi supporter in the team.

How can you let Misbah get away with his treatment of Umar Akmal? He first kicked him out of the domestic team that they both play for. Then he got him dumped from the ODI team, despite Umar being the highest ranked ODI batsman Pakistan had. Umar Akmal has been the best ODI batsman for Pakistan in the past 3-4 years, yet because of Misbah we find him batting at 6 or 7 and burdened with the wicket keeping duties.

Unbelievable.

Shahid Afridi should be kept away from batting discussions. But if we are talking about lions, then the team doesn’t have a bigger one than Lala. What a player.

2. Rest of the team tries to bat like Misbah

Mr. Ansari: Recently, Mohammad Yousuf told a few jokes when criticising Misbah. The first was that our batsmen are following Misbah as a role-model, which is why they are unable to score runs and thus win matches. If anyone has seen Misbah at the crease, they know that he is patient, disciplined and tries to play a long innings. Clearly, this is the exact problem with Umar Akmal, Shahid Afridi, Nasir Jamshed, Mohammad Hafeez and rest of the batsmen. Obviously, they are trying too hard to emulate Misbah by occupying the crease. Why, just the other day I was screaming at Shahid Afridi and Umar Akmal for playing patiently like Misbah, rather than trying to irresponsibly hit the ball out of the park.

Imran Aslam: First of all Shahid Afridi is NOT a batsman and should not be considered in any argument which involves the word batsman. Look at Jamshed pre and post being dropped by Misbah; is there any difference in the way he plays and might that have something to do with the captain? Yes U Akmal does not try to bat like Misbah but he gets rewarded by being played below Sohail Tanvir and Afridi in the batting order!!!

Q: Misbah is not a role model. He cannot inspire his batsmen. Javed Miandad, Inzamam Ul Haq, and even MoYo to an extent were all inspirational and brought out the best in younger batsmen. Misbah cannot do the same.

3. Misbah should bat at 3 and lead from the front

Mr. Ansari: This is another joke courtesy of Mohammad Yousuf, who says that our batsmen’s technique is poor is because Misbah doesn’t have the guts to come at the number three batting position. First of all, let’s think of all the times that Mohammad Yousuf as Pakistan captain came in at one down. Under his captaincy, Pakistan’s batting also struggled, and although the fans begged MoYo to come in at number three, he stuck to his favorite position in the middle order. So please, as great a batsman as you were Mr Yousuf, practice what you preach. Secondly, Misbah coming in at one down is only a stop gap solution and won’t improve any cricketer’s technique. Our batsmen have always had deep technical flaws that come from our terrible grassroots standards. How can one blame Misbah for that?