KARACHI: Former players rallied round Pakistan captain Misbahul Haq on Wednesday despite his side's woeful showing in the 4-0 one-day series mauling by England.
Pakistan failed to carry the momentum of their 3-0 Test whitewash of England in the UAE into the one dayers, losing all four games to suggest they will be vulnerable to their resurgent rivals in the Twenty20 series starting Thursday.
England strolled to a four-wicket win in the fourth game in Dubai on Tuesday, with Kevin Pietersen hitting a second successive hundred.
The sudden slump in form prompted former captain Imran Khan to bemoan a lack of depth in Pakistan's squad.
"England lifted itself after the Test defeat while Pakistan failed to carry on the good work," Khan told reporters. "We lacked depth in bowling and batting and that helped England win all the matches."
But the legendary all-rounder backed captain Misbah to continue as skipper in the short form of the game, having already led a remarkable revival of the Test side.
"Misbah needs to show more aggression but its early to write him off," said Khan, who led Pakistan to their only World Cup win in 1992. "Misbah must bat up the order to get good totals."
Khan rejected the suggestion the side would be better served by separate captains for the three forms of the game.
"If one captain is doing well in all three forms of the game then there is no use having separate captains," said Khan.
Former spinner Iqbal Qasim also backed Misbah, urging critics to give him time to turn around the side's one-day fortunes.
"He has committed some mistakes but we should back him," he said, adding that the team appeared to relax in the one-day series after their Test win.
"There was lack of consistency in the selection, sometimes they played with four spinners and just one seamer which affected their performance," he said.
Qasim said Pakistan must chose specialists for Tests and limited overs.
"Like other teams we should also designate some players for Tests, some for one-day and some for Twenty20 because this has proved beneficial for other teams," said Qasim.
Fans have been less supportive, criticising Misbah despite Pakistan's recent Test successes.
"Bring back Shahid Afridi as captain because Misbah lacks aggression, both as captain and batsman," said student Rehan Mahmood. "We need to have an aggressive captain like Afridi."
COMMENTS (19)
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how about grooming hafeez for the ODI captaincy now? enough of these old players. we will again be short a captain come the world cup given that misbah does not have more than a couple of years left in him. also as someone pointed out above, please remove farhat and malik as options for the selection committee.
There is nothing with that "Misbah should be given a chance because he has a year or 2 max left to give to the team" if its so thenevery player should be given chances and if pakistan started given these players chances then are eam would be worst then even kenya. Shahid Afrirdi should be the captain of the team as he lifted our team in the hard times and united it. Misbah is good with test captaincy
Misbah is not the problem.. Out batting line is continously failing... I don't underatand this simple logic.. How can a captain influenece his batsmen batting on the crease.. If the batters are getting out by playing cheap shots he cant do much about.. I feel sad to say that for the first time this team seems to lack talent and class even in fast bowling which used to be our strongest weapon ever since we started playing international cricket..
Let's have alternative whitewash win :P ...It's our turn now !
I have heard that Misbah is IK's cousin.. :D
How bringing in Afridi as captain would lead to any betterment of the team? Look at his performance in the series; he failed miserably both with bat and bowl. His captaincy is too capricious just like his character and I just fail to understand why do people support him? Anyone who knows even basics of cricket would opine that captain needs to have a calm and cool head over his shoulders and should be a role model for the team whereas Afridi is just a "Marasi" who plays to entertain a few of his Madari Supporters....
Did England kick out their Test Captain after losing 3-0 in test series against us? Did they kick out ODI Captain when they lost to India 5-0? All these were huge humiliations than us losing in ODI 'cuz we are not ranked as No.1 team and expectations were not that high anyways.
Kick out "Sifarishi" players like Imran Farhat and Shoaib Malik, rest is fine.
One cannot understand the talk of the senseless Afridi becoming the Captain. No one can match the leadership of the great Misbah.
Afridi is certainly not captaincy material. He is too irresponsible the way he bats, he gossips like a girl, keeps piblicly bemoaning performance of fellow players....
Best to stick with Misbah. Misbah has the highest win ratio compared to even IK or Javed Miandad.
There is no depth in Pakistan batting line up there no player in the team who can perform as a roll of like inzamam or yousif and also misbha is not an attaacking captain so we request that change captian in oneday and T20 formate
Afridi can be appointed as the ODI and T20 Captain after his commendable performance in the World Cup.
I really don't think Misbah is the problem (while he's not the solution to the team's problems either), the problem is the inclusion or players like Farhat, Cheema, Adnan Akmal and Shoaib Malik. These guys have nothing to offer the team and have shown a dismal performance.
cmon people, we should give Misbah a chance, in any case he has a year or 2 max left to give to the team.
Seriously childish mistakes. Iqbal Qasim is the one who said Misbah has committed some mistakes but we should back him, not Imran Khan
Misbah for TEST and Afridi for LIMITED OVERS..!!
Misbah was never cut for ODI captaincy and the whole thing that he is the one who got the team settled after the spot fixing controversy is crap. It was Afridi, Misbah only became the ODI captain after the West Indies series and from then on we have been playing below average teams against whom we won. All of that had nothing to do with Misbah’s captaincy.
Afridi was removed unfairly in the first place he was the one who captained the team during the hard times and led us really well and made us proud.
Misbah is a decent batsman nothing special and he isn’t the best leader on the field he’s more like an administrator who keeps things in check and comes across as someone who’s very calm. But there’s nothing about him which says ODI “Captaincy Material”
Make Afridi the captain, phase out the older players as soon as possible and start building a team for the future, Afridi is the only one who can inspire the youngsters and the team as a whole. From the current pool of players taking everything into account only Afridi is the one who is suited to the T20/ODI captaincy.
Com'on Pakistan
Bring Afridi Back. Misbah can lead in Test matches better as per his mindset