Pakistan’s Misbah-ul-Haq and England’s Andrew Strauss are rated among the astute leaders of contemporary cricket as both led their sides brilliantly in the prestigious Test format, quite often in challenging circumstances.

Merging the troops into a winning combination against world-class opponents with calculated steps and a calm determination has been the hallmark of both these captains. Their own batting stats, particularly in Test cricket, are noteworthy too.

The Pakistan captain, however, naturally deserves a bit more admiration for the way he marshalled the Test team during the highly demanding and difficult circumstances confronting Pakistan cricket in the post 2010 spot-fixing saga period.

And though Strauss had an uninterrupted and significantly longer stay in world cricket as compared to Misbah who experienced a rather late emergence at the international arena, both have undoubtedly been very good ambassadors of their respective countries and of the game of cricket.

However, their approach towards things have been contrasting and it shows. Strauss, after losing the recent home Test rubber 0-2 against South Africa — a loss that dethroned England from the exclusive number one spot in ICC Test rankings — decided to quit the game.

The 35-year-old left-hander, whose batting form also dipped in the high-profile series against Graeme Smith’s formidable side, not only left the international scene but also bade adieu to all professional cricket to the surprise of many who hold the gentleman in high esteem.

However, critics feel that the 100-Test Strauss — with two Ashes series triumphs (2009 and 2011) under his belt — made the right call at the right time.

The case of Misbah, who is three years older than Strauss, is quite different. The well-built yet ageing player has faced a string of failures in ODI cricket lately — both as captain and batsman — and yet he remains adamant about holding the job.

No doubt, the Test team has done well ever since Misbah was given the reins of the Test outfit in November 2010. However, in the ODIs, his leadership skills have left a lot to be desired. The hopeless manner in which we lost the ODI series to England, Sri Lanka and now Australia has overshadowed Misbah and his team’s impressive run in the five-day format.

Not that the thrashings were caused entirely due to Misbah’s failure as every playing member is responsible in some capacity for the defeats. But it is the captain who as chief navigator of the ship needs to act with wisdom and boldness to lead the team out of tight spots and take them to safer shores.

Similarly, the skipper should be wise enough to realise when to hand over the command to a smarter, younger, more able assistant who can carry on the good work with, perhaps, a more refreshing approach towards things.

To be honest, it is the ODI cricket and not the Tests that many experts believe Misbah should give up forthwith. Surprisingly though, there has not been any signal from Misbah that he is going to relinquish the 50-over contests despite the fact that his reflexes are clearly slowing down for gruelling limited-overs cricket.

Misbah boasts a healthy ODI batting average of 42.18 with a strike rate of 74.15, and yet his ineffectiveness in the demanding one-day games has been exposed much too often, specially in the past year and a half.

Pakistan have suffered ODI losses in several close games in 2012 alone, mainly due to the below par show of our batsmen. And Misbah’s predominantly sluggish willow work has not gone unnoticed in many such failures. The batsman adopts a rather insipid, two-mode methodology to either ‘block or hit out’ while common techniques such as rotating the strike or mixing singles and twos with occasional boundaries to step up the scoring rate are certainly not Misbah’s cup of tea.

Moreover, his defensive mindset coupled with some inexplicable tactics that he adopts as captain has only added to the team’s woes. In fact, it is this very method of his which, in more ways than one, has given a wrong direction to Pakistan cricket which is otherwise known for its natural exuberance and aggression of its richly-talented players.

Since leading his brigade to a hard-earned 0-0 draw in the two-Test rubber against a formidable South African side in the UAE in late 2010, Misbah was naturally expected to take the team to dizzying heights. Unfortunately it did not happen.

Rather, Misbah with the passage of time became unnecessarily tentative both in his batting and captaincy. For instance, playing with lone pace bowler Junaid Khan in the series-deciding ODI against Australia recently and his own snail-paced batting in the same match when quick runs were the order of the day have reflected poorly on Misbah as skipper.

His ultra-defensive attitude has often been a source of irritation for the fans who are looking for more aggression in tough situations.

What sort of an input a world-class coach like Dav Whatmore is giving in this whole scenario will also be interesting to know.

Much in contrast, Strauss, who led his team to a number of ODI victories in his career, realised his shortcomings as limited overs captain following England’s ordinary show in the 2011 World Cup and didn’t hesitate in handing over the mantle to Alastair Cook. “Retiring from one-day cricket will enable me to focus solely on the Test captaincy as we strive to be the top-ranked team in world cricket,” he had said at the time, a wise comment indeed from a wise leader of men.

True to his word, Strauss led from the front to take England to the top of Test cricket ladder in the last twelve months. While he experienced temporary bad patch as a batsman early this year, he worked hard to overcome the same with a positive mental approach. Strauss’ last century in Tests came as recently as May 2012 against the West Indies whereas Misbah recorded his last Test hundred in May 2011, also against the West Indies, almost one-and-a-half years ago.

Taking a leaf from Strauss’ book, Misbah must understand that giving up the ODI format will put him in a better position to prolong his Test career with aplomb.

Some may argue that the cricketing culture of Pakistan and that of England are poles apart. It may be true but bold people who set new trends often inspire others to bring healthy change in culture.

Our own World Cup-winning captain Imran Khan twenty years ago had set the tone in Pakistan cricket by leaving the international arena at his peak. Misbah, too, must choose his moment now to bow out from ODIs with grace before it’s too late.