Re: Malik's captaincy
Very good thread and excellent discussion followed.
I don't see Shoaib Malik any better than Younis Khan, only perhaps in terms of batting, but certainly not as a captain by any means. Thinking back to the times when a fielder would drop a catch or slightly misfield, Younis Khan was always seen cheering up the entire team with his display and range of emotions; a major investment from his part which have rarely been the case with the current situation. I regard Shoaib Malik as having a killer instinct on the field, having been in the team for a number of years and sharing the dressing room with the best. That killer instinct on the field is still there but it is not as prevalent as one would have liked, and in today's day and age, one has to be proactive than reactive; Shoaib Malik would fall somewhere in between. It has much less to do with the healing of the time and the 'inexperienced' campaigner, and more to do with having the general feel of the match and giving your strike bowlers their full quota of overs. His recent decisions of bringing in bowlers at almost the right times and at the right intervals, except that the fielding was left untouched, is an important and a killer instinct which raises his stock as a captain.
The Australia series will be testing times. If the above mentioned changes by everyone fall down the wire, I would reckon Shoaib Malik will be in deep waters. Nevertheless, time is one thing that is going in his favor. He has that, for now.