The stability behind Pakistan's revival under Misbah

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  • Misbah (r) has provided solidity as Pakistan captain.

    February 2, 2013 – Pakistan are bowled out for 49, their lowest ever Test score. South Africa’s bowlers blow away a batting line-up boasting Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq, Azhar Ali, Mohammad Hafeez and Asad Shafiq.

    Pakistan momentarily recover from the jolt but concede the series 3-0. En route, they surrender the Cape Town Test from a position of considerable strength. Shafiq, with an average of 33, tops the batsmen’s list, while Misbah and Azhar average 22 and Hafeez musters his 43 runs at 7 after being turned white with fear by Dale Steyn.

    Pakistan selectors and the Dav Whatmore-Misbah collaboration resist temptation and do not press the proverbial panic button. Some six months later the Test squad heads to Zimbabwe for a two match series. Disaster strikes again and Pakistan lose the second Test to their minnow opposition whose cricket is barely keeping its head above water on a diet of measly financial support.

    Shafiq averages 10, Hafeez 14 and Azhar 21, as only the resolve of Younis, Misbah and the wiles of Saeed Ajmal save the team from total humiliation as Pakistan draw the series 1-1.

    Pakistan bench Hafeez for the return series against South Africa but Shafiq and Azhar survive, the former repaying the selectors’ faith with a century but Azhar continues to struggle.

    Sri Lanka follow South Africa to the UAE, and the powers that be replace Azhar with Hafeez. By the time the series ends, Azhar has a match winning ton to celebrate on his comeback as the team chase down 300 plus on the final day of a classic in Sharjah.

    Pakistan are the guests next time around as they head to Sri Lanka and are whitewashed for the second time in 18 months. Azhar and Misbah endure ordinary returns as Rangana Herath leaves the team in a spin.

    March 2012 to October 2014 – Pakistan lose three and draw three of the six Tests series they play in this period. Despite a long string of failures, the much chastised and ever-changing band of selectors and PCB officials are not swayed by the outrage from the country’s ardent cricket fans and pundits as they retain the fulcrum of the team.

    And this past Sunday afternoon, as Azhar smeared Moeen Ali high and handsome into the Oval stands, Pakistan had completed a remarkable turnaround to square a four match Test series in England. The seeds of this moment of great joy and equal relief were sown when the power brokers at the helm of Pakistan cricket didn’t lose faith in Misbah and his charges during their barren 30 month period. It ensured that the core of the team retained stability.

    Four out of the six batsmen who were routed at Johannesburg’s Wanderers — Misbah, Younis, Azhar and Shafiq — featured in the eleven that handed out a similar beating to England at the Oval.

    Each of them struck centuries at various junctures of the series and only Azhar’s Edgbaston century was in a losing cause.

    The other three played match winning knocks with Younis’ monumental 218 an epic performance on the back of failures at Lord’s, Old Trafford and Edgbaston and when many called for his axing.

    Since October 2014, Pakistan haven’t lost a single Test series. They have beaten Australia and England in the UAE, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh away and have drawn with New Zealand at ‘home’ in the Emirates and now against England in they own backyard.

    Stability and stable-minded management has paid off, while Misbah’s nomads have tackled great adversity with their only comfort the solid backing they have received from the decision makers.

    Credit must go to that core of players for responding in kind as Pakistan staved-off the English challenge with a fantastic fightback in the final Test that followed their disintegration in the middle matches that followed their superb Lord’s win.

    As the euphoria wears off, Misbah, Mickey Arthur and the selectors have some thinking to do once they reassemble for the two match series against the West Indies in October.

    Misbah's Test captaincy record

    • Took over in 2010
    • M: 46 W: 22 L: 13 D: 11
    • Win %: 47.82
    • Won more Tests than any other Pakistan captain

    Pakistan will enter the series as firm favourites and must use the two games to iron out the weaknesses at the top of the batting order and look to blood a veritable all-rounder in time for the far sterner challenges that await in the guise of tours to New Zealand and Australia.

    Misbah has expressed a desire to top the Test rankings and his team is now within striking distance of doing just that.

    The skipper’s team is now beyond its evolutionary stage and they have arguably the most stable and longest serving middle-order core in international cricket, perhaps second only to South Africa.

    This is the time for them to set Pakistan’s woeful record straight in Australia, and do so by standing up to a team that has beaten them in nine consecutive Tests as hosts.

    Misbah has long vowed to leave a lasting legacy when he finally puts down his bat and hangs up his captaincy cap and having come came so close to becoming the first Pakistan captain to win a series in England in 20 years, if he were to become the first to win a series in Down Under that legacy would be secured.

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