Responsibility. Some thrive on it, others crumble under its weight.
Being made captain of an international cricket side is certainly a responsible position. Being made captain of Pakistan in the wake of the Lord’s spot-fixing scandal that had consumed the previous skipper Salman Butt had even more responsibility attached to it.
Such was the burden placed on Misbah-ul-Haq’s shoulders.
Pakistan could easily have imploded. But it didn’t and Misbah must take a lot of credit for that.
At the Reverse Sweep, we find it absurd that Misbah attracts so much criticism from Pakistan cricket followers on blogs and Twitter.
His captaincy may be defensive and over-cautious at times, but Misbah has proved to be the steady pair of hands that the good ship Pakistan needed to prevent it from sinking to the bottom of the sea.
Since taking over the captaincy, Pakistan have drawn against South Africa, won in New Zealand and Zimbabwe, drawn in the Caribbean and have just beaten Sri Lanka in Test, ODI and T20 series' in the UAE.
When you consider that this has been achieved without the disgraced Lord’s trio and for the most part their two premier batsmen in Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf, it is a pretty impressive record.
Misbah’s batting has been like his captaincy: cautious, steady and unspectacular; yet remarkably effective and consistent. His Test scores have been as follows: 9, 76*, 77, 58*, 62, 99, 70*, 2, 52, 25, 102* 66, 6*, 46, 41, 89 and 9 not out. 889 runs at an average of 80.81 and a fairly sedate strike rate of 42.
As we said at the start, some thrive on responsibility. Thankfully for Pakistan, Misbah-ul-Haq is one of those people.
Where next?
Historic India-Pakistan summit flounders due to cricket diplomacy
Revealed: New Pakistan Player Code of Conduct
Mohammad Aamer: the waste of an irrepressible talent
Check out all our Reverse Sweep heroes and zeroes including Kamran Akmal, Salman Butt, Shoaib Malik and Younis Khan
If you like this, follow us on Twitter @thereversesweep
Comments