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Misbah ‘thinking about’ retirement; undecided about Sydney Test
- Updated: December 30, 2016
Misbah-ul-Haq has raised the possibility that he may leave international cricket, even as soon as before the third and final Test of Pakistan’s series against Australia.
Pakistan’s most successful Test captain was speaking in the immediate aftermath of a dramatic and demoralising final-day collapse at the MCG – which ended in a defeat by an innings and 18 runs – and a day during which concerns over his own lack of runs came to the forefront once again.
Already struggling for Test runs, Misbah lasted two balls, sweeping both, the second straight into the hands of Nic Maddison at short fine leg. That brought to a grand total of 20 runs in his last four innings, and would seem to have pushed him to the brink of calling it a day.
“I think I need to think about it,” he said, when asked what the immediate future held for him. “I always believed that if I couldn’t contribute to the team then it’s no point staying there. This is a point where I need to think about that, even before the next game [in Sydney] and after the series. Next couple of days I will think about it and decide what to do. There is no point in hanging around and doing nothing. I haven’t decided [about Sydney] but let’s see.”
The conversation around Misbah’s retirement has been a long-running one. It began in earnest after he led them to a series victory in the UAE against England in the winter of 2015. At the time, the prospect of a series against India kept him from retiring. But when that did not materialise, he decided to stay on to lead Pakistan in a clutch of difficult …
