An open letter to Misbah-ul-Haq
Dear Misbah,
You lost your first wicket in the 26th over with the score on 126. The openers had laid out an enviable position, a solid platform, which you needed to capitalize on. From 126-1 in 25.1 overs, 250 should be a given, while 275 reachable, yet you fold for 215.
Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic!
Can you tell me one player in the world who walks in to bat at 130-2 in 26 overs and then faces 30 balls for 15 runs?
Most teams would use the position to send in their best batsmen and build on the platform. Most batsmen in the world will carry on the momentum created by the openers.
But not you sir. No sir, you will use tactics that will suck the life out of the innings and derail any progress that could have been possible.
You started the game once again without Sohaib Maqsood, a batsman who has had a brilliant start to his ODI career - an average of 36 and a strike rate of 84 in 17 innings. And instead of him you once again played Asad Shafiq who has taken 47 ODI innings to show what a rubbish ODI player he is with an average of 25 over those games.
Not only do you include Asad Shafiq in the XI, you send him to bat when the team is on top at 126-1 in 25.1.
You do that when you have in your dressing room an Umar Akmal, the top scorer in the previous ODI, and Fawad Alam, someone who grinds his way through the innings and has accumulated 325 runs at an average of 81 in his previous 6 ODI innings.
Alright maybe due to some brain damage you thought that Asad Shafiq was capable of continuing in the same momentum as Shehzad and Sarfraz, but once the second wicket fell, you still did not realize that Umar or Fawad should go out.
Instead, you walked out yourself, probably hoping that you could regain some much needed form. At 130-2, the team's better batsmen should have walked out so that the team could have remained on top.
Yet, you sir, with 210 runs in your previous 9 ODI innings at an average of 23, decided that it was more important for you to get some batting practice than it was for the team to progress to a competitive total. You sir put your needs ahead of the team's needs.
And you know what is sad?
You will probably blame Fawad Alam for scratching his way to 20 not out and make him the scapegoat and drop him for Sohaib for the 3rd ODI. When in fact, you should have started with Sohaib in the XI instead of Asad.
How do you expect to continue like this sir?
The World Cup is 5 months away and you expect to lead your team at the global event? How will your team compete against the top teams when you continue to falter game after game and refuse to learn from your mistakes? How do you expect the team to perform when you bring them down every time they look to rise to the occasion?
After an opening stand of 126 in 25 overs, only you could have made it possible to end the innings at 215. I don't know anyone else who would have killed his team's chances the way you did today.
Please resign gracefully and leave the limited overs game gracefully. Otherwise, you may be left with egg all over your face when you are asked to step down.
Time to go sir. Time to go home and appear on some TV channel as an expert for the World Cup.
Yours truly,
Q & many other Pakistan cricket fans.