Misbah ul Haq and The Many Reasons Why He Is No Longer Part of PSL!

Pakistan Super League’s most successful franchise Islamabad United parted ways with its two-time trophy-winning former Captain and recent Head Coach Misbah ul Haq just days before the next PSL edition.

On the face, the franchise claims that since PCB doesn’t allow one person to hold multiple posts, now tare parting ways with Misbah ul Haq, who is busy with the national side.

However, Misbah’s growing unpopularity, his illogical decisions, and his track record as a bad coach might have contributed to Islamabad United’s verdict.

Let’s discuss the many reasons that might have helped the franchise owners in coming up with a decision that has been accepted by not just Islamabad but the whole country.

Is Misbah ul Haq out of contention because of his abysmal T20 record as Coach?

When Misbah ul Haq was appointed Head Coach of the Pakistan Cricket team, they had a relatively better World Cup where one team had to play badly to ensure Greenshirts don’t make it to the semi-finals.

Sarfaraz Ahmed was the Captain of both the ODIs and T20Is sides and was considered one of the better T20I Captains in the world, for he held the record of most consecutive series wins.

With Misbah’s entry, things began to go sideways for Pakistan as he selected players on his likes and dislikes, without consulting the skipper and the team lost, axed the skipper.

Things like these might happen in Hollywood Sports flicks but not in reality, but Misbah ul Haq made sure that the next time someone does something like this, his example is preferred over Hollywood!

To make things worse, most of his decisions backfired such as backing some players who were in the side for other deserving candidates and appointing Shadab Khan as the T20I Vice-Captain over some other suitable candidate.

Read Also

Pakistan-New Zealand T20Is And Abysmal Performance

The way the Pakistan Cricket team played in the first two T20Is in New Zealand was not only disastrous but lacked planning and coaching and that’s where Misbah ul Haq comes in. After losing the series, Pakistan made those changes in the third match that should have been made in the first one and the visitors won the match.

Was Misbah ul Haq axed because of Islamabad United’s worst performance?

During the last season of Islamabad United, Misbah ul Haq was associated with the team as the Head Coach, and while he was instrumental in backing Shadab Khan as a skipper, the team didn’t do well at all in PSL 2020.

Unlike the fourth season where they ended in the top three, they lost 6 matches out of their 9 in the fifth season to finish at the bottom of the table. Misbah ul Haq would have definitely been sacked even if he had not been part of the national setup because he made a champion team into a loser side in just one season.

While Islamabad United managed to declare him the root cause, PCB is yet to take any action for they seem to believe in complete destruction before the resurrection.

Did becoming ‘Head Coach Misbah’ from ‘Everything Misbah’ alert those at the helm?

When Misbah ul Haq was handed over the team’s responsibility, he was not just the Head Coach but also the Chief Selector, and the Batting Coach.

However, within the first year, he had to let go of the Batting Coach duties and Younis Khan took over and within a few months, he was asked to either keep the Head Coach Job or the Chief selector one and he chose to part ways with the latter.

From ‘Everything Misbah’ to just ‘Head Coach Misbah’ was like making Man of Steel become Man of Plastic, and when that happens, eyebrows were raised.

That’s exactly what might have happened at the Islamabad United Headquarters where they chose to bring in someone new instead of someone who had no clue how to plan victories.

Did Misbah ul Haq’s attitude result in his ouster?

When Misbah ul Haq retired from the game, everyone was sad because he was not just a good batsman but a perfect Captain.

However, he couldn’t replicate his Captaincy success when he turned Coach and whatever he touched, turned to dust. He first got rid of a successful Captain Sarfaraz Ahmed, then appointed an already axed former Skipper Azhar Ali in his place and then had him replaced with Babar Azam, all within a span of 15 months.

Pakistan’s team’s ranking kept going down and they started to lose matches, which may be one of the reasons why Islamabad United didn’t take a chance with Misbah ul Haq as a Head Coach in 2021.

Let’s hope the Pakistan Cricket Board also realizes their mistake and rectifies it by appointing someone who deserves the post, not someone who wants to settle scores when at the top.