The once in a generation fighter
So it was the end of an era. How quickly time passed away. The year 2000 seems to be yesterday, but to my astonishment, 17 years have passed in the twinkle of an eye. I was down with chicken pox and jaundice when the three-match test series between Sri Lanka and Pakistan was going on. A man named Younis Khan debuted and scored a hundred like many young and promising Pakistanis of the past and since then, for the next five years, he only earned harsh criticisms for failing to prove a point.
In the third Test at Bengaluru against India, I discovered a different Younis temperamentally. He was hungry for runs and eager to spend more time at the crease. A double ton and half-century changed his career, which was all set to meet a premature end like Basit Ali, Ali Naqvi, Salim Elahi, Yasir Hameed, Taufiq Umar etc. Bob Woolmer, who was sliced apart by a section of Pakistan media for trusting faith in Younis again and again, breathed a sigh of relief.
Younis has rediscovered himself and in the next decade, I and the world would not stop praising this fighter from Mardan for his ability to rise to the occasion when the going was tough. As a batsman, he was not a spectacle like Mohammad Yousuf or Zaheer Abbas, but his gritty and ability to score runs in all conditions; dethroned Zaheer as one of Pakistan’s greatest number three batsmen. Many might not agree with my opinion, but Younis is the best ever number three batsman which Pakistan have ever produced.
In all these 17 years, he experienced all the toughest challenges a man could experience in his journey as a cricketer. But he defeated all the odds, with a smile and lots of runs.
I am going to miss him a lot.
I am not his fan, but I need to admire his ability to come back from the wilderness
Misbah-ul-Haq was playing a match in Kenya against Australia. It was a tri-nation series. He batted well, but his style of batting did not win our hearts. Then I saw him bat against Bangladesh at Multan, where I knew our bowlers would dismiss him quickly and they did. When he was selected ahead of Yousuf in the inaugural World Twenty20, I cursed him. He failed to win two crucial matches and that fatal scoop at Johannesburg didn’t win him many accolades.
After 2007, he was lost.
I thought Ijaz Butt and Co would invest faith in Younis to lead the side Test side, but when Misbah was selected, I thought, Pakistan cricket’s funeral is all set to happen in no time. Already, they were devastated by the spot-fixing and Zulqarnain saga and now, they selected a captain who was about to get kicked for his shoddy performance in limited-overs cricket.
But, as time progressed, Misbah proved his worth as a captain. Tactically, he was nowhere near Imran Khan, Mushtaq Mohammad or Wasim Akram, but time and again, those tactics to bore the batsman with defensive tactics and fetch wickets and injecting a defensive mindset in the name of stability might not win my heart, but it made him one of the most successful Test captains of Pakistan.
Still, I am not a fan of Misbah the batsman and captain, but I need to admire his ability to come back from the wilderness and lead the side well which was supposed to get vanished after that Test at Lord’s in 2010.
It had been a great journey for these two soldiers.
Respect!
Thank You
Faisal Caesar
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