NEW DELHI: Well aware that he has reached the business end of his international cricket career, veteran Pakistan Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq is planning to call time if the much-awaited series against arch-rivals India happens at the end of the year.

“I know very well that there is not much cricket left in me. Yes, I want to play a few more Test matches as I look forward to life beyond cricket. But there is a plan. If the series against India happens, I want to play that series and probably retire from international cricket. So India series can be my last one,” the 41-year-old Misbah told Press Trust of India on Sunday.

Having already retired from T20 Internationals and ODIs, Misbah spoke about the pros and cons of being an international cricketer, who only plays the longer format.

“You can view this aspect from two sides. If I talk about the difficult part of it, it is the gaps that might affect a cricketer’s form. Take a player, who plays all three international formats. That cricketer is playing round the year and is effortlessly switching from one format to other.

“But when you are just playing Test cricket, it becomes a challenge since there will be gaps. You straightaway cannot get into the groove but its hard work as you don’t have it easy in Test cricket. That’s the difficult part,” feels Misbah, who recently plied his trade in domestic T20 for Caribbean Premier League side St Lucia Zouks.

“Now coming to the positive aspect of playing only Test cricket, there are enough gaps for you to think, just go back to the drawing board and work on your game.

“When you constantly play three international formats round the year, there might be technical errors that develop in one’s game. Once you get time off from the game, you can take corrective measures,” said Misbah, who has 4,000 runs from 52 Tests and 5122 runs from 162 ODIs.

For Misbah, one of the biggest highlights of his international career would be leading his country to their highest-ever run-chase against Sri Lanka at Pallekele achieving the 377-run fourth innings target.

“It was a very big achievement for us,” said Misbah, whose own contribution was an unbeaten 59 including a six that ended the match.

“It was probably one of the biggest achievements of my international career, being a part of such a win. It is never easy to chase a target of 377 in the fourth innings. You also have to keep this in mind that Sri Lanka had a very good bowling attack. You need to have a disciplined mindset and execute your plans in such a big chase. It was really satisfying,” he said.

The Pakistan captain is also ecstatic about the emergence of Yasir Shah as a match-winning leg-spinner and feels that he has the potential to be a world beater.

“Yasir is a very talented bowler. He has shown what he is capable of. What I would expect from him is consistency over a lengthy period of time. If he can show this type of consistency in the coming years, he will be counted among the top-class leg-spinners in world cricket. The other area that he would also have to work on is adapting to various conditions,” Misbah concluded.

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2015

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