The search to fill in the vacant slot in the format started as soon as Misbah-ul-Haq decided to hang up his boots in One Day Internationals. Shahid Afridi would have been a popular choice to take over, since he was also the captain of the T20 team, but the problem with him was that he had also called it a day, as far as ODIs were concerned. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in a bit of a dilemma since both men were keen to continue as captains in their favorite formats — Afridi in T20 and Misbah in Test cricket, looked around a little to pick up Azhar Ali, who wasn’t a part of the recently-concluded World Cup squad and hasn’t played ODIs for a while.

Shoaib Malik

That reason alone has caused tongues to wag. Azhar would perhaps be the ideal candidate to take over from Misbah in Test cricket, but him captaining the ODI team? People have serious doubts about it. Let’s see how the PCB must have reached their conclusion and what options did they have to begin with.

Fawad Alam

Rumours were also surfacing that Sarfraz Ahmed and Sohaib Maqsood were being considered for the job. If this had been true then we would be facing disaster. Sarfraz was perhaps one of the very few shining stars of Pakistan in this World Cup but to make him captain at this juncture would have done more harm than good to his career. It would have made us lose a potential future captain. So it was best to let him play and cement his place in the team for the time being and see how he can bring more laurels for the country.

PCB may think they have found their man but can he ably fill the slot of ODI captain for Pakistan?

The second name doing the rounds in the media was of Sohaib Maqsood. Apparently, his refusal to stand on the short leg in the quarter-final against Australia during the World Cup when Misbah asked him to, speaks volumes about him. No, we don’t believe the “small helmet story”. There is an old saying: actions speak louder than words. And in his case the PCB must have pondered over the matter of disobedience to his captain before handing him the responsibility. Besides, he is hardly a certain choice in the playing 11. 

Sarfraz Ahmed

Meanwhile, former captain Shoaib Malik ticked all the right boxes purely on cricketing basis, but he carried a lot of unwanted baggage. His statement after a domestic T20 match, where he admitted that his side threw away the match deliberately will haunt him for the rest of his life.  

Faisal Iqbal

Then there was Fawad Alam and Asad Shafiq. Asad Shafiq is capable enough to retain his place in all three formats. And to be honest he is my favorite cricketer out of the current lot; but Asad as captain? Ah, it would have been a huge gamble; not worth losing a player who has all the right traits to be the next Mohammad Yousuf.

Azhar would perhaps be the ideal candidate to take over from Misbah in Test cricket, but him captaining the ODI team? People have serious doubts about it.

Sohaib Maqsood

Though it didn’t happen this time for him, Fawad Alam was perhaps a good choice since he has been around for quite a few years. Above all, like Misbah, he is a “thinking” cricketer. He has shown good temperament at the highest level by rescuing the team from difficult situations on quite a few occasions.

Asad Shafiq

That being said, there is also another name, which comes to mind. A cricketer captaining different domestic sides for a number of years — Faisal Iqbal. Reminiscent of Misbah’s early days, he has been waiting in the wings for many seasons, despite having talent and temperament to shine on the international level. Remember Misbah went through the same ordeal when Inzamam-ul-Haq was the skipper? So if things don’t work out with Azhar, the PCB should let Faisal take the responsibility for a year and see how he fares. In a worst case scenario, he could fail as captain (which is highly unlikely), but after a span of 12 months we could have one cricketer, ready to take over the reins in the other formats, too.

Otherwise, who knows, history would repeat itself and we could find another Misbah in Faisal; perhaps with slightly more visible aggression to keep all the analysts, appearing on different TV channels, happy.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, April 5th, 2015

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