Few days back while skimming through the archives I found this: “Now, for those who think Inzamam is irreplaceable, think again, you can find millions in this country who can play like Inzamam did at the World Cups (2003, 2007).
A blessing in disguise
Few days back while skimming through the archives I found this: “Now, for those who think Inzamam is irreplaceable, think again, you can find millions in this country who can play like Inzamam did at the World Cups (2003, 2007). Hasan Raza and Misbah ul Haq are strong contenders for this spot in my view. Both these batsmen have consistently performed well in domestic cricket and they are ready to replace the burly ‘once’ maestro from Multan.”
This is an excerpt from one of my write-ups published in Us Magazine exactly 10 years back (April 20, 2007). I had been an advocate of Misbah during the time Team Green were looking for a replacement of Inzamam-ul-Haq. Misbah had been in and out of the team over the past few years but because Inzamam and Mohammad Yousuf were deemed irreplaceable, players like him were finding it hard to cement their place in the national setup.
He rose to real prominence during the World T20 in South Africa and almost singlehandedly dragged the team over the line.
Over the next decade Misbah-ul-Haq, along with the ageless Younis Khan, formed arguably the greatest duo of Test batsmen this country has ever produced.
During the infamous tour of England in 2010, marred by the spot fixing controversy, when Salman Butt pressed the self-destruct button on his career, Pakistan cricket sunk to a new low.
That’s when the captaincy armband switched hands from Salman Butt to Misbah-ul-Haq. No one knew exactly what was in store with Misbah sitting on the throne but now when you look back it seems to be a blessing in disguise. Butt was not captaincy material, not in my book at least; he was a decent batsman but the qualities you look for in a leader were not there.
When Misbah became captain it was not a good time, and there have been many since the turn of the century, to take over the captaincy armband. In Amir and Asif Pakistan cricket had lost perhaps the most talented duo of fast bowlers operating in Test cricket back then, due to the same spot fixing saga that brought Butt’s career to a grinding halt.
And if that was not enough, Pakistan had to now play their home games in UAE as international teams decided against playing in Pakistan after the Lahore terror attack on the Sri Lankan team in 2009.
So Misbah was facing not one but two massive problems at the same time, and that’s what makes his achievements even more remarkable. However, cricket is a team game and to create a world class team in any form of cricket you need match winners.
Imran Khan’s all conquering team of the 80s had Miandad at the helm, Inzamam made the 90s and the early 2000s his own, while Yousuf seamlessly took the batting burden from Inzamam on his shoulders and maintained the high standards set by his predecessors.
And in Younis Khan, Misbah found his Miandad, his Inzamam and his Yousuf. The two forged an unfaltering partnership over the next seven years and catapulted Pakistan Test team to unprecedented heights.
But they were not alone in writing this success story. Misbah’s Test teams relied heavily on the trickery of first Saeed Ajmal and later Yasir Shah. The slow wickets of the UAE presented Pakistan spinners the perfect opportunity to showcase their skills, and they did that in some style. One after the other they hunted down some of the finest exponents of the modern game, they turned the grounds in UAE into impregnable fortresses.
Beating England at Lords in 2016 and eventually drawing the four match series 2-2 was the icing on the cake and this recent Series triumph in the Caribbean, the first in the history of Pakistan cricket, was the cherry on the icing, and a perfect send-off to two of Pakistan cricket’s greatest players of the 21st century.
