What is the most demanding job in cricket? Probably, the hot seat of captaincy of the national team. In the Pakistan cricketing setup there is clearly a distinct lack of training ground for team leaders. The modern cricket captains are ruthlessly judged compared to all their predecessors.

The art of mentoring in our system is non-existent and there is no process of grooming future leaders at any level of cricket. The flawed domestic structure is partly to be blamed for this shortcoming because the element of spotting rare talent is clearly missing.

These days captains are not alone in taking the flak because usually former players of some repute accompany them as what we usually refer to as head coaches. Pakistan will soon have Mickey Arthur as their latest import to fill the void left vacant by Waqar Younis.

Some are born leaders and some get the job by default. But in the case of Misbah-ul-Haq, it is a mixed blend of both notions

Therefore, the story of Misbah — who celebrated his 42nd birthday on May 28 — is very fascinating. His Test debut at the relatively ‘old’ age of 26 was followed by sporadic appearances until he was banished for four years from the Pakistan side for no fault of his own. Some believe he was deemed a serious threat to those who were aspiring for captaincy.

On the face of it, Misbah is not the type one categorises into the hall of fame that includes Imran Khan and Javed Miandad — the two legendary servants of our cricket who inherited captaincy in different circumstances. A young Miandad was never wholeheartedly accepted as captain by senior stalwarts. As a result, the infamous revolt surfaced in early 1982 and Miandad — identified by the eagle-eyed Air Marshal Nur Khan as the long-term Pakistan skipper — was forced to give up the job.

Imran was never a first choice for the captaincy but he got the job in a compromise decision to diffuse a potentially explosive impasse between groups of players who wanted their own candidate to be appointed.

The captaincy riddle continued once Imran left the scene and Miandad was again ditched in late 1992 by Wasim Akram and company. The leadership crisis never stayed away far and it seemed everyone wanted to lead Pakistan. The game of musical chairs went on and on until Inzamam-ul-Haq took over the reins in 2003 after Rashid Latif claimed a false catch in what ultimately proved to be his last international match.

The sordid events during the Lord’s Test of Pakistan’s last series in England in August 2010 brought into picture Misbah for national captaincy. Not many expected him to last in the job for more than a couple of years. But as it panned out Misbah not only weathered the storm but restored the image of Pakistan cricket in no uncertain manner.

What has surprised most critics is the durability of this uncomplicated cricketer. He wasn’t picked for the fateful England tour by the Mohsin Khan-led national selection committee six years ago. And when he led Pakistan against South Africa in November that year, he was already well past 36 with a topsy-turvy international career up to that point. He joined Asif Iqbal in becoming Pakistan’s oldest skipper (both were aged 36 years and 168 days) on captaincy debut when he went out to toss with Graeme Smith at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.

At the time, the general discussion at various cricket forums was how long this arrangement would last with nobody expecting Misbah to rewrite Pakistan’s history. No one had ever imagined that Misbah would ultimately emerge as the most successful Test captain of his country or carry out the remarkable feat of being the joint record-holder of Test cricket’s fastest-ever century with the legendary Viv Richards until Brendon McCullum bettered the record with a 54-ball century against Australia in his final international appearance earlier this year.

But the most extraordinary feature of Misbah’s feat was his advancing age when he clobbered the Australian bowlers to all corners of the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. He was just a young 40 years and 128 days old compared to Richards (in 1986) and McCullum who both were in their mid-30s while setting the records.

The ongoing fitness boot camp at the Kakul Military Academy in Abbottabad has revealed startling facts relating to the level of agility of the Pakistan players. But in Misbah’s case, he has yet again put to shame the younger members of the national side by topping the chart along with his trusted teammate Younis Khan.

The chief reason why both Younis and Misbah have been at the top of their game is their attention to fitness. They never attempt to avoid spending hours under the hot sun during training sessions and are usually the first ones to show up and the last to go off.

Misbah, who stands 1.84 metres tall and possesses an unflappable temperament, pays a lot of attention to his fitness and works away diligently to stay in the best possible shape to meet the demands of international cricket. But there are pitfalls of rigorous training schedules as Misbah found to his dismay in 2014. He lost something like 10 kilograms while attending a conditioning camp in Lahore. On the tour of Sri Lanka shortly afterwards, Misbah hardly scored with the consistency he had been doing regularly.

The biggest test of his life awaits Misbah as he prepares to play his maiden Test series on English soil. Already Pakistan’s oldest Test captain, the Mianwali-born player is poised to become the ninth oldest man — Misbah will be 42 years and 47 days old — to lead a Test side when Pakistan take on England in the opening fixture of the four-match series at Lord’s on July 14.

Ironically, it was his age that became a bone of contention for the PCB hierarchy in 2012 when he was unfairly asked to quit playing Twenty20 Internationals — a format generally considered too taxing for aging cricketers — when he was, and arguably still is, the best of batsmen in the shortest form of the sport.

A man who seldom expresses himself openly, Misbah comes across as a docile individual according to many people. But if you know him well, realisation dawns that he is a shrewd thinker who believes in giving his best to any team he is playing for, not just the country, at all levels.

Generally we find a core of Pakistan players scorning at the idea of playing domestic cricket in between international series. Not Misbah. He is one of the very few who never turn their back on the local team they play for unless there is some other emergency that requires their presence. Once he arrived in Karachi from a Test series in the wee hours and almost straightaway headed to the ground to play for his department — Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited — in a first-class match. That is a classic example of how a professional cricketer should be.

Misbah was proficient in all three forms of cricket. His Test average is a very healthy 48.89 and his 162 One-day Internationals yielded 5,022 runs at 43.40 while in 39 T20 matches, he returned a respectable average of 37.52 to provide another dimension of progress as an international player.

Moreover, one of his notable achievements in the T20 format was leading Islambad United to the inaugural PSL title earlier this year in the UAE.

Like a lantern lighting the way, Misbah has just been doing that in the spot-fixing saga. He eclipsed both Imran and Miandad, each of whom figured in 14 Tests as winning skippers, by leading Pakistan to 20 victories in 42 out of his 61 Test appearances, including the historic series successes against England (twice) and Australia.

The biggest test of his life awaits Misbah as he prepares to play his maiden Test series on English soil. Already Pakistan’s oldest Test captain, the Mianwali-born player is poised to become the ninth oldest man — Misbah will be 42 years and 47 days old — to lead a Test side when Pakistan take on England in the opening fixture of the four-match series at Lord’s on July 14.

The presence of Misbah the batsman, he is the country’s sixth highest Test run-getter (4352), is another vital aspect of Pakistan doing so well in Test cricket. The next goals for Misbah are to prove his worth on the testing pitches of England and that of Australia in what could probably be his swansong in international cricket.

No Pakistan cricketer has ever managed to prolong his playing life as Misbah has done so dedicatedly, so admirably and so honestly to outlast every other player of the modern era, both here and outside. His achievements deserved to be acknowledged and inscribed in golden words at a time when, sadly, Pakistan no longer plays in front of home-based fans.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, May 29th, 2016