The rise of Pakistan’s Test team: Misbah-ul-Haq, still a record that does not skip

In the instalment of our five-part series examining the rise of Pakistan's Test team, Osman Samiuddin breaks down the steady rhythm of Misbah's captaincy.

Misbah-ul-Haq has grown into the Pakistan captaincy over the years, multifaceted in his talents and capable of variation, yet ever-consistent in character – kind of like your favourite album. Ryan PieShow more

This is Part 5 of a five-part series in the lead-up to the first Test between Pakistan and West Indies in the UAE, starting on Thursday, looking at the rise of the Pakistan Test team.

At 3pm on Thursday, Misbah-ul-Haq will walk out with Jason Holder for the toss. Despite giving away seven inches in height he will tower over Holder, a landlord lolling around his fields, the green Pakistan blazer still as unsuited to that square-shouldered frame as it was six years ago when he walked out for his first coin toss.

The laws of probability tell us that he has a 50 per cent chance of winning the toss. History tells us Misbah has won 13 of 21 tosses in the UAE, however, so maybe something is up with the coins here.

Because this is a day-night Test, Misbah might do something different, but 10 times out of 13 he has chosen to bat. They are playing with a pink ball and the opposition is not the toughest, so Misbah may feel emboldened enough to play three pacemen.

In the UAE he does not do that often – in only five of his 21 Tests as captain has he played three fast bowlers. Otherwise two spinners is the way he goes. If he does not in Dubai, he will definitely revert to this later in the series.

• PART 1: David Kendix explains the maths

• PART 2: In UAE, an existential longing for home

• PART 3: Ajmal, Azhar and Wahab's favourite UAE moments

• PART 4: The secret to Pakistan's UAE success

And then we will find ourselves settling into the familiar rhythms of Misbah’s captaincy. Bat first, bat big, bat long; bowl dry, bowl out, win. If that sounds a little plain, it is not – it is just coherence, of a kind we are no longer used to.

Think of it not as listening to the same song over and over, stuck in you like a fever, but as an album that you listen all through, sometimes feverishly, but sometimes idly. Unmistakably it is the same band behind it, as disparate as each song may be, but one theme binding it.

If Misbah’s side has felt anachronistic, in part it is because we listen less to albums in one sitting than we used to. We shuffle and stream, one artist, one genre to the next, creating playlists that speak about us, not necessarily the music.

One can look over the last six years and detect little change in Misbah. He has lost a little weight and gained a beard. Five years ago, just ahead of a seminal home season, in an interview with The National he explained how it was important to cut through the clutter and madness of captaincy.

“Almost all the things are the same,” he said, comparing leading Pakistan to a domestic side. “The main thing is the pressure. In decision-making, at every other level, the pressure isn’t there that is here ... Otherwise, cricket remains the same.”

Cricket is what he has sunk into, reducing everything outside the field, all things not-cricket-but-still-cricket, to muzak: ongoing, but muted somewhere in the ether. It is not as if he is a sports-obsessed child inside an adult body, unable to cope with real life. After all, without skipping a beat he has handled as complex a matter as Mohammed Amir’s return.

He is, instead, brilliant at compartmentalising.

“You don’t have to deal with that,” he said earlier this year about Amir’s return. “You have to concentrate on your game. What are your game plans, what will you do on the field, how will you execute? That is the simplest way. There might be 100,000 eyes on you or 10 million but you just concentrate on the ball.”

And hardly any ball in international cricket can claim to have escaped Misbah’s attention. He is an obsessed observer, one who can lose himself in the game’s multitude of plots, ploys and battles within battles.

Last year, he sat down with The National again, this time to dissect the minutiae of his captaincy. In some detail, with almost flawless recall, he detailed five or six little but memorable tactical decisions. It is difficult to think of another Pakistan captain who has spoken in as much depth about it as Misbah.

It also revealed a happy manoeuvrability. In so much as there is a clear Misbah philosophy, it is accommodating of many interpretations within. Misbah’s sides can sting like vipers but also choke like constrictors. He is as comfortable with fast bowlers – tearaways and plodders – as he is spinners – left-arm, leggies, offies, the lot of them.

He was clean-shaven still in the interview last year and looked, for all intents and purposes, the same as he did in 2011. He talked in the same even tone, the one that reminds you no worse hell exists than being stuck on a phone talking to a call-centre recording.

He is older though. Little signs like not trusting himself to stand at slips this summer in England. He is no less committed in the field, but ever so slightly slower. The batting does not show it, but his game always had a careworn feel to it.

But if it is possible for a captain who started at 36, he has matured, or at least grown perceptibly.

The other day he was regaling students at a function in Lahore, with a funny tale about captaining Andre Russell during the Pakistan Super League. He was so loose and easy telling it, with the expressions and ease of a born entertainer.

Imagine ever saying that of him when he began.

*******************

Misbah’s best innings in the UAE

• 76* vs South Africa, Dubai, November 2010

For long, Misbah thought this was his most significant Test innings. It was his first Test as captain and this stodge-athon came in the second innings, in saving a Test for Pakistan. On a dead surface admittedly, he batted for nearly four hours, against Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel to do it.

• 100 vs South Africa, Abu Dhabi, October 2013

This time South Africa were better, having added Vernon Philander to their attack. The pitch was livelier too and Pakistan were a little uneasy when he came in. He repelled them all, however, and masterminded a lower-middle order recovery. It was his first hundred in the UAE and first in over two years.

• 107* vs Australia, Abu Dhabi, October 2014

Misbah had cantered to a 166-ball hundred in the first innings, but was overshadowed by Younis Khan and Azhar Ali. Pakistan were well on top when he came out to bat the second time, and this time he made his first innings effort look turtled-paced. So much so that by the end he had equalled Viv Richards’ record for the fastest Test hundred, off 56 balls. ​

Follow us on Twitter @NatSportUAE

Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/TheNationalSport