Misbah-ul-Haq to take a call on his future ahead of the West Indies tour

Over the past few days, Pakistan Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq has been facing criticism from every quarter with people suggesting him to step down from captaincy and hand over the reign to a youngster in the team. Chief Selector Inzamam-ul-Haq also indirectly suggested Misbah to step down by saying that he is in favour of only one captain across all three formats. Squashing all these remarks, Misbah said that he would assess his mental and physical fitness ahead of the West Indies tour before taking a call on his future as a Test cricketer.

“Obviously, some people were waiting to criticise me and finally, after six years they got this chance,” Misbah was quoted as saying by Dawn on Thursday. When asked if it was his age that prompted many critics to point finger at him, Misbah said, “Age does not matter [in sports]; it is the level of physical fitness which helps you to continue playing, and I will not announce my retirement at this stage. First, I will assess my fitness in the [coming] PSL and then in domestic matches for Faisalabad which are to be held before the West Indies tour.”

“After checking my fitness level as to where I stand, I will make up my mind about my [playing] future,” The Test skipper further added. When asked that whether he was in favour of Sarfaraz Ahmed taking over the reign from him Misbah said, “It is the domain of the PCB to appoint someone captain.”

He further added that being the captain of the Test team it won’t be appropriate to name a potential successor who might take over the reign from him. Misbah further added that changing one personnel in the team won’t give them positive results, rather they should look at the broader aspect and the change cricketing structure in the country. “In fact, we have to correct our cricket structure which has many weaknesses which I pinpointed in the past, too,” Misbah said.

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He also clarified the fact that he hasn’t met PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan but had a brief interaction with chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq where there were no discussions regarding his retirement and future plans.

Backing Pakistan’s limited-overs captain Azhar Ali who had a woeful time off late, Misbah said that one change won’t bring a dramatic turn in fortunes for Pakistan. “With just one change [that of skipper] things will not be corrected as there is a need to change the [entire] system. We have abundance of talent but in order to raise this talent up to the international standard we need a very effective system.”