Misbah-ul-Haq was a surprise choice to lead Pakistan on their 2016 tour of England, but he proved to be an outstanding captain. He was named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year the following spring.
Misbah retired as Pakistan’s most successful Test captain, leading them to 26 wins from 56 Tests. He aggregated 5,222 Test runs at 46.62, including 10 hundreds.
In January 2017 at the SCG, after Misbah-ul-Haq had finished his last press conference on the tour of Australia, he was pursued by a gaggle of Pakistani journalists. One of them wanted to ask a question that had escaped his mind earlier. Misbah, who had just presided over a 3-0 Test defeat, turned around and asked him to fire away. “How,” the journalist wondered, “did Pakistan fall so far, from No. 1 to 5, in just three months?” Without breaking step, or pausing for breath, Misbah replied in Punjabi and a pop-philosophical vein: “If a man who has lived for 70 years can suddenly die one day, what’s a team falling from the ranking in three months?”
Sydney was Pakistan’s sixth Test defeat in a row, five of them under Misbah. Yet, only during the course of that Australia series had the fog cleared: it had been a series too far for Misbah – and for Misbah’s Pakistan. Maybe three too far. With hindsight, the golden haze of an August afternoon at The Oval – where he joked with Alastair Cook about wanting a fifth Test – was their zenith.
Pakistan’s ten-wicket win over England to secure a 2-2 draw came in front of an adoring crowd, at the scene of one of Pakistan’s greatest early triumphs. It was August 14, the anniversary of the country’s founding. As the Test played out, it became a tribute to the passing, in July, of one of Pakistan’s greatest men, the humanitarian Abdul Sattar Edhi, and one of its greatest openers, Hanif Mohammad, who had died on the first day. A week later, Pakistan would become the top-ranked Test side – only six years after losing the spot-fixing Test at Lord’s, when they were sixth in the rankings and much further down in the rankings of goodwill.
Victory at The Oval confirmed as much. He had also instigated an off-field PR coup by on-field deed. This was Pakistan’s first non-rancorous tour to England in 20 years. The attention, he knew, would be fierce, but it couldn’t be as fierce as the 2011-12 series, when he underwent some of the toughest media interactions of his career. “We knew we had controlled these things this time,” he says. “After six years of this side, we had no issues off the field, so I was confident nothing would happen.” Nothing, that is, other than magic.
