After a raw and unfiltered reaction post the MCG loss, Misbah-ul-Haq has found his centre again, to focus on the Sydney Test
Osman Samiuddin in Sydney02-Jan-2017This is going to be an interesting farewell, mainly seeing as it isn’t right now looking like a farewell. Or not one just yet anyway, so definitely hold back for now on the guard of honour rehearsals team Australia. Maybe not even one for the foreseeable future, so no need to start planning that farewell match either, PCB. He is definitely playing in Sydney and he is definitely playing as captain as well. That much we know for sure. And after that, well, we can get to it when we need to get to it.Politely put, Pakistan have not had a straightforward history with the retirements of its great characters. But it did really look as if Misbah-ul-Haq might buck that trend. He would know when it was time. He would not make a fuss about it because, hello, he’s Misbah and not Shahid Afridi/Javed Miandad/Imran Khan/Younis Khan. He is not a rattler of the system. He is not a victim. He is not a star.Moreover, Australia was a natural final frontier. No Pakistan side had won a series here, no Pakistan side has won a Test here for 20 years; heck no Pakistan side has even drawn a Test here since 1990-91. Win and it was the perfect time to go, the Misbah era sealed. Fail and then it wasn’t the perfect way to go but still maybe the right time to. Apparently not. Or, who knows, maybe.It’s been a strange couple of days in the world of Misbah. He was as despondent after Melbourne as at any time in his captaincy. What he said then about retirement was a raw, unfiltered reaction to a defeat as hurtful as any; how much it shook him was clear in how openly he doubted his decision-making as a batsman. He never opens up publicly like that.He has since found his centre again, however, no doubt spurred on by his team around him – his “family” he called them on Monday. They have gone to him and told him not to go, or not to go now, or to keep believing in himself and his ability. On Sunday evening, at a dinner hosted by Waqar Younis for the team, Misbah’s mood was not up exactly – he is Misbah after all – but lighter than post-MCG. So too the team around him; no brooding, no shrinking into one’s self as past teams might have done.The team spent New Year’s Eve together in his hotel room, Misbah said, watching the fireworks with family and kids (he got the room with the view obviously). They had dinner together and a chat and decided to throw everything that had happened in the previous two Tests into the bin. Like everyone else, they too couldn’t wait to say goodbye to 2016. Hit refresh.”No, right now, retirement is completely out of my mind,” he said. “If I do think about that, then this match here will be very difficult to play. We have to think of this match as the first match of the series and that it is the final also. At the moment, this is how we are thinking. I have forgotten the last four-five Tests we’ve had and now we’re totally focused on this.”Or as he said later: “2016, gone. Now it is 2017. What is gone, that is gone.””Sometimes you’re playing well, seeing the ball well, not scoring runs, lack of confidence and suddenly one good innings and you’re back”•Getty Images
If it sounds like a u-turn, then it kind of is, but also kind of isn’t. His emotions post-Melbourne, he said, were also true of the time. That is how he felt and this is how he feels now. And it may well still be the case that he decides to go back to Pakistan and announce his retirement there, in front of his people. Much will depend on this Test, this dead rubber.Crucially, he has regained – or perhaps retained – some degree of confidence in his batting, which is what had him so distraught after the MCG loss.”Honestly speaking, that can happen to anyone, at any stage in your career. Doesn’t mean you left nothing in yourself if you’re playing. You can still come back, still score runs for your team and contribute. There could be a patch and it can come at any stage, whether you are 19, whether you are 20, 30 or 40, because cricket is like that, especially in batting department.”Sometimes you’re playing well, seeing the ball well, not scoring runs, lack of confidence and suddenly one good innings and you’re back. Playing almost 20 years of cricket, and international cricket for 15-16 years, I can understand that could happen. Whatever I said at the time, that was also true. That doesn’t mean you can’t come back. You can come back still. You work hard. You believe in yourself.”Above all it must be the drive to prove that this is not one of those Pakistan sides of recent vintage; that this 2-0 is different to at least the past three Pakistan sides to have gone into the final Test of an Australian series with that scoreline. It is worth acknowledging this also isn’t a very good Australian side, not as strong as their predecessors would have faced.It was also part of what fueled Misbah to react as he did. “That was only because we thought, and I thought, we were a far better team than what happened in Melbourne. The way we played two Test matches. That was all because of that – frustration, disappointment, it was because of that. We truly believe in this team and the players and the team believes in me. That’s why we’ve been so successful in the past.”I have no doubt in my mind at the moment in terms of whatever I said in that press conference, that was, you could say, frustration and disappointment.”I think [the team] have recovered from Melbourne. That is something about this team. We have been through this a lot of times but right after that, in the next game we surprise opposition. These guys are mentally tough. At this time they are hurt and we just want to prove that we can do better than that.”
