A Saviour left behind

One thing is for sure that when Pakistan cricket team does not play cricket, they still manage to keep themselves in the limelight. Whether through controversies or by changing their captain, they keep their interest in news world alive. This time, too, they have managed to steal some light from the IPL onto them.

PCB announced on Friday that Misbah –ul – Haq will no longer be the captain of Pakistan cricket team in the shortest format of the game. Mohammad Hafeez has been appointed as the new Pakistan captain in T20 internationals. Misbah, however, will continue to lead the side in one day internationals as well as the tests. This move by PCB has obviously not gone down well with Misbah as he did not wanted to step down as the captain from the T20 internationals. Only a fortnight ago, he had told the media that he had no intentions of stepping out of the captaincy and wanted to prove himself as a good T20 player.

Recently, Misbah has faced the criticism of pacing his innings very slowly in the fastest form of the game. Some Cricket experts in Pakistan believe that Misbah is not at all a player meant for T20 cricket. Misbah on the other hand believes that he is suited for the T20 format as well. He says that he is not really concerned about the opinions of these experts as they were the ones who were against his selection at the age of 33 but he proved everyone wrong through his performances.

This step taken by PCB also tells us the same old story that this game is a great equalizer. Five years back, Misbah was the player played a major role to take Pakistan to the Inaugural T20 world cup finals and even almost won the world cup for Pakistan. But today, PCB seems to have lost faith in him. He, now, is not even considered as a player in T20 internationals for Pakistan.

Despite of losing the captaincy, Misbah is now much more confident. He has made it clear that he is going to continue playing the domestic T20 matches. He said, “It is the board’s and selectors decision about me and T20 cricket but I feel that I can play in this format and would continue to do so at the domestic level.”

Without Misbah in the squad, Pakistan team now looks weak in the middle. They would need someone as good as him in their T20 squad. This step taken by PCB comes as a shock because the Pakistan team has played some great cricket and has won a few series under his captaincy. So, sacking him as the T20 captain before the T20 world cup is a risky move. Appointing Hafeez as the new captain is only adding to the risk because he is new to this job of leading the side.

But who knows this might turn out to be a great move by PCB. Who can forget the brave move by BCCI selectors when they appointed Mahendra Singh Dhoni as the new T20 captain just before the Inaugural T20 world cup in South Africa.

So this might well be the moment for Mohammed Hafeez to capture!