**Ironically some of the fittest players in our team are seniors (Younis, Misbah)
LAHORE: Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq, while trying to play down his advancing years due to which questions are being raised over his international career, has contended that the standard of selection of a player should not be his age, but his performance.
Talking to reporters here on Thursday, Misbah, who will be 38 next month, said that if a 16-year-old fails to perform and an ageing player delivers then it’s the right of the latter to be selected.
Misbah is considered as an important member of Pakistan’s batting line-up and with his calmness and calculated strokes, he has helped Pakistan to victories on several occasions.
While the PCB still backs him as captain, a lobby in the national team, along with some other stakeholders, has been raising questions over his advancing years.
Meanwhile, Misbah while urging for the revival of India-Pakistan cricketing ties stated that throughout the world many spectators wanted it to happen.
He said the two countries face each other seldomly due to which pressure builds on players of both the teams, while adding that holding a series consistently between the two sides would help minimise that pressure.
Commenting on holding an IPL-style T20 event in Pakistan, he said that if the Pakistan Premier League started, it would
help Pakistan’s cricketers get international exposure as well as financial benefits.
Whomever the lobbyist are (let me guess does he bear a moniker that rhymes with broom ) they need to show the consistency, calmness, EDUCATION, sensibility, consistency, ability, leadership and ofcourse FITNESS that Misbah shows to prove they are better than him.
However, T20s, yes, let PCB make a unique team and Misbah’s position in T20 is open for discussion just like Younis, Azhar Ali are not fit for T20 either.
Age - say up to 40, 41 - should not be the sole criterion for selection for batsmen (and by extension batting all-rounders) in tests (and perhaps ODIs as well) if they are fit and perfoming well. There are many players in history esp. batsmen who have gone on to play till 40 and beyond. Gooch retired at the age of 41.5 years
But as you get older your reflexes do slow down and your reaction times are not as quick (which can affect both your batting and fielding skills). The first casualty of slowing reflexes is timing i.e. it becomes difficult for a batsman to meet the ball at the point he used to when he was at his peak. It is just a microsecond too late and that makes all the difference. The second casualty is power. Hence in the shortest format (where explosive batting is everything that matters) ideally none of your players should be in their late 30s unless they are exceptionally gifted
^^ your ODI team collapses in 30-40 overs just as well....why not keep him in ODIs, just let Dav work with him to come up with better strategies for building his innings.
Who is your candidate for ODI and T20 captaincy...don't tell me Mr. Afridi.
Whatever his age, with AVE/SR of 42.50/75.10 in ODIs and 37.52/110.20 in T-20s... Misbah is still better than many so-called batsmen in the team.
Granted, he needs to think a little differently in crunch situations, he still deserves to be in the team until the time that he consistently performs badly.
) they need to show the consistency, calmness, EDUCATION, sensibility, consistency, ability, leadership and ofcourse FITNESS that Misbah shows to prove they are better than him.
