Misbah retained as captain for Asia Cup

Despite speculations of axing Misbah for the dismal performance of Pakistan squad under his captaincy in the recently concluded Pakistan-England cricket series, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has retained Misbah for the forthcoming Asia Cup.

The team announced for the Asia Cup Cricket excludes Shoab Malik and Imran Farhat. Junaid Khan had already been axed from the likely squad.

The team will participated in the Asia Cup cricket championship that is being played in Bangladesh from 11-22 March. Besides Pakistan, the other participating teams include the defending champion India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

India has had a terrible tour of Australia lately and has even been ousted from the ongoing Tri-nation Commonwealth Bank Series Championship. On the other hand, Sri Lanka has outplayed India in this championship and is now all set to take on Australia.

As for Pakistan, it remains to be seen whether its batsmen show an improved resilience and determination to win limited overs matches or not. Though Pakistani bowlers have performed exceedingly well, it is the batsmen who have failed the team in the ODIs and the T20Is against England. 

Misbah may be a good captain for slow paced test matches - but for fast paced limited overs matches like the ODIs and the T20I, boldness and aggressiveness is required to make more from less balls. Misbah could not inculcate aggressiveness in his batsmen - nor in himself which resulted in our dismal performance in the ODI/T20Is. Now that he has been retained, it is expected that he makes up the deficiency while playing the Asia Cup cricket.

The Pakistan squad that flies off to Dhaka on 7 March now includes:

Misbahul Haq, Mohammad Hafeez, Nasir Jamshed, Younis Khan, Umar Akmal, Hammad Azam, Asad Shafiq, Shahid Afridi, Azhar Ali, Sarfraz Ahmed, Saeed Ajmal, Abdur Rehman, Umar Gul, Aizaz Cheema, Wahab Riaz.