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**Official** Pakistan and England in the UAE 2015/16

smash84

The Tiger King
Wasim wasn't captain in those series.
West Indies - Moin Khan
South Africa - Rashid Latif/Saeed Anwar
Sri Lanka 2000 - Moin Khan

Wasim's greatest achievements as a test captain were winning in England in 96 and beating WI 3-0 at home.

If you talk about overseas
Misbah has won 1-0 in New Zealand
drew 1-1 in West Indies
won 1-0 in Sri Lanka

Pakistan have pretty much always lost in SA..they lost 0-2 in SA under Waqar, and 1-2 under Inzy.
South Africa is the best team in the world, so losing 0-3 to them is a bit like Wasim losing 0-3 in Australia 99.

Having said that, yes Misbah's record is mainly based on home domination, but as I pointed out, between 95 to 2000, Pakistan didn't win a lot at home either, losing to England, Sri Lanka, Australia etc.

Not his fault if Pakistan are not part of Big 3 and don't get to play England and Australia every other year. I am not saying they would have won, but he didn't even get an opportunity to play there.
So indeed Wasim was not captain in those series but in SL and WI played a pivotal role

But he did lead to wins in England and Asian Test Championship and of course the windies white wash.

Also when eng, SL and aus beat pak at home wasim wasn't captain for at least the eng and the aus series (cbf looking up the SL series).

That Aus side was arguably the greatest side in history so yeah it kind of evens it out but Wasim was just a more attacking captain.
 

Black_Warrior

Cricketer Of The Year
I don't disagree that Wasim was a good captain..it's just that Pakistan did not have a very good team ethos in the 90s..as various people including Waqar himself recently pointed out. Wasim was barely ever captain for more than a year, and Pakistan kept playing musical chairs with captains.

Wasim and Waqar didn't like each other
Wasim, Moin, Saqlain, Anwar were one group
Aamer Sohail, Rashid Latif, Ijaj Ahmed were one group
Then you had Salim Malik's camp, and Waqar was kind of a rebel going around.

All this is not entirely Wasim's fault of course..but Wasim never got full charge of the team for considerable time as a captain. Misbah has been captain from 2010 and you can see just how much he has grown, evolved, learned as a captain and the team learned with him. This form in test is mainly in the last 1 year but it wouldn't have happened without the years preceding it.

The 90s were just not a very good time in Pakistan cricket and the major ODI successes and a few highs (beating WI, drawing in SA, winning in India 99 and Asian Test Championship) gave us the impression that it was a great decade.

So yes, I agree with you that Wasim was a far more aggressive captain, he was mainly carrying on from Imran Khan's style, however where he failed (although not entirely his fault) was to build a cohesive team unit that would last a few years. Had Wasim been captain for 4-5 years at a stretch without any interruptions and controversies, that 90s team would have been one of the greatest ever, might even have beaten Australia in Australia 99 (even with Peter Parker doing his thing)

Misbah's captaincy is more in line with Mushtaq Mohammad. It is cautious, safety first cricket, fully aware of the limited resources available and carving out a system to extract the best out of limited resources.

If anything, Pakistan team under the leadership of Misbah-Waqar now reminds me a lot of the Andy Flower-Andrew Strauss peak period in England. They were also very set in their ways, hardly ever experimented much or did anything 'funky' ala Clarke or McCullum, were sure of how to use their resources despite people questioning them at times, and produced the results for most part.

When Pakistan persisted with Malik at number 3, not even considering promoting Shafiq who has had a great year at number 3, it reminded me of when England made Bell bat after Collingwood in the 2010 Ashes just because that's what they had planned, despite the fact that Bell was at his prime form and Collingwood could not put bat to ball.
 
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Black_Warrior

Cricketer Of The Year
So unfair of the Pakistani board to make their request public. Same thing happened with Sangakkara. Totally unprofessional and symptomatic of their boards.
Totally agree with you. And Khan is telling reporters "no matter what happens, I won't let him go"
WTF? This is from the Chairman and he is one of the sane ones.

If they really cared about it, Misbah had announced long time back that he would be retiring end of the year, they would have arranged some test cricket for the team in the meanwhile.
It's totally unfair to ask him to stay when Pakistan don't play any more test cricket until July next year. That's a long long time without cricket at 41.
 

smash84

The Tiger King
Totally agree with you. And Khan is telling reporters "no matter what happens, I won't let him go"
WTF? This is from the Chairman and he is one of the sane ones.

If they really cared about it, Misbah had announced long time back that he would be retiring end of the year, they would have arranged some test cricket for the team in the meanwhile.
It's totally unfair to ask him to stay when Pakistan don't play any more test cricket until July next year. That's a long long time without cricket at 41.
at least he might get paychecks in the meanwhile :p
 

hendrix

Hall of Fame Member
Totally agree with you. And Khan is telling reporters "no matter what happens, I won't let him go"
WTF? This is from the Chairman and he is one of the sane ones.

If they really cared about it, Misbah had announced long time back that he would be retiring end of the year, they would have arranged some test cricket for the team in the meanwhile.
It's totally unfair to ask him to stay when Pakistan don't play any more test cricket until July next year. That's a long long time without cricket at 41.
at least he might get paychecks in the meanwhile :p
I think asking him is fine; he can always say no. Or at least he should always be able to say no (totally insane from the chairman).

It's putting him under public pressure by telling the public that you've asked him that's not fair.
 

Adders

Cricketer Of The Year
2-0 was fair enough. I think if they'd kept on playing Pakistan would keep on punishing England for having no spinners. They are the better team in the conditions.
Yeah, I don't feel hard done by by the score line. I think Pakistan were definitely the better side overall and a drawn series would have probably flattered us a little, even though it was such a closely fought contest.

I enjoyed this series more than I have enjoyed one in a quite a while tbh. A little disappointed that 2 poor sessions over 3 tests cost us so heavily, but in the main I think England performed better than expected (not that expectations were very high to start with) so on the whole I'm happy enough with how we went.

Big congrats to Pakistan though............they are an extremely likely team at the moment under Misbah's leadership. Not sure I've thought that very often about them in my time of watching cricket so kudos to Misbah (WAG) and the management.
 

theegyptian

International Vice-Captain
England in South Africa: Who is in your XI for the first Test in Durban? | Cricket News | Sky Sports

Willis going with rotation policy for SA it seems. Presumably (because that's what he does) he was calling for Buttler to be dropped from this last test - and predictably he wants Bairstow dropped straight away and Buttler returned and to bat 6. Also he seems to want Zafar Ansari into the team as the spinner - presumably to be dropped one test later. Lets just be glad that he has never been selector. What was Willis like as England captain? Can't believe it was much fun playing under Bob.

WILLIS' XI: Cook, Hales, Bell, Root, Taylor, Buttler, Stokes, Ansari, Broad, Finn, Anderson.

BUTCHER's XI: Cook, Hales, Bell, Root, Taylor, Stokes, Buttler, Moeen Ali, Broad, Finn, Anderson.
 

aussie

Hall of Fame Member
England in South Africa: Who is in your XI for the first Test in Durban? | Cricket News | Sky Sports

Willis going with rotation policy for SA it seems. Presumably (because that's what he does) he was calling for Buttler to be dropped from this last test - and predictably he wants Bairstow dropped straight away and Buttler returned and to bat 6. Also he seems to want Zafar Ansari into the team as the spinner - presumably to be dropped one test later. Lets just be glad that he has never been selector. What was Willis like as England captain? Can't believe it was much fun playing under Bob.

WILLIS' XI: Cook, Hales, Bell, Root, Taylor, Buttler, Stokes, Ansari, Broad, Finn, Anderson.

BUTCHER's XI: Cook, Hales, Bell, Root, Taylor, Stokes, Buttler, Moeen Ali, Broad, Finn, Anderson.
Presuming SA will unleash a 4-prong of Steyn/Philander/Morkel/Rabada on ENG, it could be a damaging tour.

Looking at this series, not much deep analysis needed. ENG played the spin in general slightly better than the 2012 tour, in fact in Asian tours since that series in SRI & IND - ENG have played spin a bit better.

Que the anti-KP bridage to this comment, but Pietersen presence would have made a great difference, since no ENG batsmen at any point really had ability to counter-attack PAK spinners. Bell who has been backed by ECB continuously was in survival mode all series.

Having said that unlike the 2012 wins & draws in SRI/IND where ENG had experienced main bowlers Swann/Panesar as spinners - the inexperienced/part time set-up of Rashid/Patel/Moeen just could not keep PAK batters tied down for long enough.

This speaks to deeper issue from county cricket regarding spin ATM, where potential test standard spinners are non existent.
 

Prince EWS

Global Moderator
Yeah, how many of us really think he will do well though?
Yeah pretty much the opposite of what Black_Warrior said is true.

He actually had a good year, but people aren't 'hopping on the bandwagon' as no-one really expects him to do well. It's just a case of 'well, gotta pick someone'.
 

aussie

Hall of Fame Member
The only worry with Hales despite having a good FC form this season, is if his poor form in AUS ODIs & lack of cricket in last few months will translate to his inevitable test debut on Boxing day.
 

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