In this blog post, I am going to talk about the most hated or dislike person Misbah-ul-Haq. I will show you the other side of his character and career in this post. You will get to know the other side of this person which you had never seen. And this is not your fault because the media and former cricketers showed him to you as a villain, selfish and tuk-tuk. But I will describe him as the title of our post Silent guardian of cricket Pakistan: Misbah-ul-Haq.
His journey towards cricket
Misbah-ul-Haq Khan Niazi was born on 28th May 1974 in the city of Pakistan Mianwali. He was one of the most educated people in Pakistan cricket as he was having MBA Degree in Human Resources Management. He made his test debut in 2001 as a middle-order batter when Inzamam, Younis Khan, and Muhammad Yousuf were there already. So he couldn't go longer.
Then he made a comeback in the 2007 T20 World Cup.
Misbah-ul-Haq was at his prolific best and was the top scorer in the tournament for Pakistan. He was the 3rd highest run-getter overall in that tournament. He was the 1st player from Pakistan to score a fifty in T20Is. He was the 1st Pakistani player to achieve the no.1 position in the ICC T20 batsmen ranking. His 66 against Australia was named the 4th best knock of the year by ESPNCricinfo voters. He was named in the Team of Tournament by Cricinfo for the 2007 T20I World Cup. But his one shot which he played in the final made him a villain despite his all hard work.
Misbah-ul-Haq was a member of the champion team in the 2009 World Cup.
In 2010 spot-fixing incident happens in Pakistan cricket and 3 top-class cricketers were banned. That hit Pakistan cricket really badly and Pakistan cricket was on the edge. At that time nobody wanted captaincy of the test team and then the only one man named Misbah came forward and took the charge out of nowhere. 36 years Old batter took the charge and took the responsibility in the toughest format and led his side to the No.1 position after 6 years. That was a huge moment in the history of cricket Pakistan.
Misbah-ul-Haq was really fluent in Pakistan's batting lineup in the 2011 World Cup under the captaincy of Shahid Afridi. But after the loss against India in the semi-final he was the villain again due to his slow knock.
Under his captaincy, Pakistan won the ODI series by 2-1 in India against India in 2012 which is the last bilateral series between the Arch-Rivals. Same year Pakistan won the 2nd title of the Asia Cup under his captaincy and after that Pakistan hasn't won that.
In the 2013 Champions Trophy, Pakistan lost his all matches but he was the part of Team of the Tournament from ICC and was also named captain of the Team by Cricinfo. The same year Pakistan was on a tour of South Africa where they lost the test series by 3-0 but Pakistan won 1st ever ODI series by 2-1 against South Africa. In 2014 against Australia he gave shocked the world he scored the fastest 50 in test cricket against Australia in Abu Dhabi and he levelled the record of the fastest 100 also in just 56 balls. Later, Brendon McCullum broke the record as he scored 100 in 54 balls.
There was some controversy over captaincy just before the ODI World Cup 2015. Later on, Misbah announced the captain and he announced his retirement after that event. Pakistan was out in the quarter-final. He continued to play test cricket and Pakistan was on a tour of England in 2016. Where Pakistan managed to tie the series by 2-2 and after that Pakistan became the test no.1 side in the ICC ranking and Misbah-ul-Haq got the test mace. At that time he was the best captain in the world and the most successful captain of Pakistan cricket.
Was Misbah really slow in ODI cricket?
Misha has 42 50s in Odis out of those
7 50s with a strike rate of 100+
6 50s of a strike rate of 90+
7 50s with a strike rate of 80+
8 50s with a strike rate of 70+
9 50s with a strike rate of 60+
4 50s with a strike rate of 50+
One 50 with a strike rate of 40+
It means he scored 28 50s with a decent strike rate and 9 50 with a lower strike rate.
You can know the reason obviously because Pakistan's top order was always itchy in his era and he was the captain with extra responsibility. You can say that he wasn't having too many shots in his armoury but he was decent enough to carry the burden of Pakistan's batting line up. And remember there was not much changing in Odi approach since 2015, teams were still happy with 270 runs on the board and Pakistan's batting collapse was a common thing.
In won matches, the strike rate of Misbah was 85.18 and his 25 50s were in winning cause.
The same year the Pakistan Super League was launched and once again Misbah showed his supremacy by winning the 1st ever title of PSL for Islamabad United. Babar Azam was also part of Islamabad United in that edition but he couldn't play all the matches due to injury. Asif Ali was also part of Islamabad United.
In 2017 he launched Shadab Khan in Pakistan Super League and Shadab became a superstar. After that tournament, Pakistan was on a tour of the West Indies which was the last series for Misbah and Younis Khan. Pakistan won 1st ever test series by 2-1 in the Caribbean and 2 legends signed off in some style. Misbah-ul-Haq was one of the fewest cricketers who left the cricket from the ground, not from the Twitter account.
He came, he saw, he conquered and then he left silently.
He continued to play PSL and won the 2nd title for Islamabad United in 2019.
Then he moved to Peshawar Zalmi in 2019 and then he left domestic cricket also.
After the horror campaign in the 2019 World Cup, the management of Pakistan was changed. Misbah-ul-Haq was appointed as the chief selector, batting and head coach at the same time. Once again media and former started to bash him. Yes, he couldn't get much success as a coach but he made some valuable contributions in this role also. He selected Naseem Shah for the 1st time in the test squad for the tour of Australia in 2019-20 where Pakistan premier bowlers Amir and Wahab refused to play test cricket. Pakistan was blown away in this series. Later on, he asked Mohammad Rizwan to open the innings in New Zealand when he was struggling in the middle order and now he is the no.1 T20 batter in the world. He called Fawad Alam back into the test squad and he is also going nicely. He decided to appoint Babar Azam as the Captain of all 3 formats for Pakistan and Babar respond nicely to that.
Just before the World Cup of 2021, he decided to leave the job and his fellow Waqar Younus also did the same.
But his legacy and his founded players are still going nicely. He never complained about anything throughout his career but the World knows what has done for Pakistan and went away silently. He was the best middle-order batter at his time for Pakistan and every time he walked in Pakistan was in trouble at 30/3 or 40/4 but he always did his job with a cool head.
There is a saying in cricket that "you don't play for the crowd, you always play for the team" and Misbah-ul-Haq did that perfectly.
The definition of a legacy in cricket is, what you have left for your team after your retirement. Misbah left Azhar and Asad to fill his shoes and Babar was also in the set-up. Later on, he produced some players in PSL and then during his coaching tenure.
Records and Achievements
- The first batsman to make a Test hundred after the age of 41 since Geoffrey Boycott in 1981.
- One of the 2017 Wisden Cricketers of the Year
Now you can decide that was Misbah-ul-Haq was the villain or the hero?
This is up to you.