Misbah-ul-Haq heads home, unlikely to play second Test

Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq pulled out of New Zealand tour due to sad demise of his father in law. The Pakistani skipper’s wife Uzma took to Twitter to share the sad news. She tweeted “My father passed away, plz pray for his maghfirat. me and @captainmisbahpk on board coming back to Pakistan.”

Misbah became the first Pakistani captain to lead his team in 50 Tests in Pakistan’s loss to New Zealand at Christchurch. He scored a patient 31 in the 1st innings and got out playing a poor shot on 13 in the 2nd Innings. The second Test is scheduled at Hamilton on 25 November. ODI skipper Azhar Ali is likely to lead in Hamilton. Pakistan have a big tour of Australia coming up where they will be playing their second day night in their history.

Vice-captain Azhar Ali addressed the media and said Misbah was heading home, “Unfortunately his father-in-law is very serious and he has to go back. Hopefully, things turn out well,” said Ali.

Misbah-ul-Haq is the key player and someone whom Pakistan will rely on the big tour down under. In 2014, he scored the joint fastest hundred against Australia at Sheikh Zayed stadium in Abu Dhabi off just 56 balls on 2 November 2014. Misbah scored twin hundreds in that game and he is only the second Pakistani batsman after Inzamam-ul-Haq to do so. Also, this was the first time an opposition captain scored twin hundreds against Australia, a feat that was emulated by Indian batsman Virat Kohli later that year.

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After New Zealand tour, Pakistan will play a day-night Test at Gabba from 15th of December followed by Boxing Day Test in Melbourne and New year’s Test in Sydney. Then they have a five-match ODI series scheduled in January. Pakistan had a terrible time in Australia on their last tour down under when they got whitewashed in all formats of the game, the score line reading 9-0.