LAHORE: Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq has disagreed with a suggestion of chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq to try middle-order batsman Azhar Ali as opener instead of inexperienced Sami Aslam during the upcoming Test series against England, in case any of the regular openers Mohammad Hafeez or Shan Masood are unavailable for any reason.
Sources told Dawn that Inzamam is of the view that Sami may not be able to face the English conditions with maturity, so it will be better to also keep Azhar Ali as the other option for opener’s slot.
However, the sources said Misbah told Inzamam clearly that if he does not have full confidence over Sami’s abilities as opener, he should not have selected him in the first place.
But if he has been selected, the young opener will be given his due role in the England series.
Hafeez, whose selection in the Test team for the tour of England remained dramatic as he neither attended the Boot camp in Kakul nor the short training camp in Lahore, has still been named in the squad.
Hafeez himself has owned up to his recurring knee problems but believes that he will completely overcome his fitness problems before the team’s departure to England on June 18.
It may be mentioned here that both Misbah and Inzamam do not really see eye to eye on many cricketing issues.
This obviously has a background to it when between 2003 and 2007, captain Inzamam, Mohammad Yousuf and others enjoyed complete domination over team selection and kept talented players like Misbah, Bazid Khan, Faisal Iqbal and a few others at bay despite their prolific record in domestic cricket.
That eventually resulted in the nightmarish end to Pakistan’s World Cup campaign in 2007 in the West Indies.
After that turbulent period, Misbah came back strongly into the team with a string of good scores and was soon elevated as captain in 2010.
In his five-year captaincy, he earned the crown of being the most successful captain of Pakistan in Test cricket, eclipsing the record of stalwarts like Imran Khan, Javed Miandad, Wasim Akram and Abdul Hafeez Kardar.
Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2016
