Lahore, July 24: Coach Waqar Younis has urged for a young skipper to be groomed as an eventual replacement to 37-year-old Misbah-ul-Haq.
“Being 36-37 is not very young,” Waqar was quoted as saying by the ‘cricinfo’. “He (Misbah) is very fit and has done very well as captain but age usually catches up, so we need to groom a young captain.” Misbah had to take over the reins of Pakistan cricket in all forms of the game under various dramatic circumstances.
The middle-order batsman took over the Test captaincy after former skipper Shahid Afridi retired from Tests and Salman Butt was involved in the spot-fixing scandal during the tour to England in 2010.
Afridi who led the team to the semifinals of the ICC Cricket World Cup in the sub-continent gave up the post after the Caribbean tour following problems with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) administration.
Afridi refused to play under the present PCB administration headed by chairman Ijaz Butt.
Meanwhile, Misbah’s first stint as captain of all forms of the game will be the tour of Zimbabwe in August where the team are due to play one Test, three ODIs and two Twenty20 matches.
However, the coach admitted that Afridi will be missed in the team.
“Every cricketer who leaves is missed, like Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and then myself were missed and, of course, Afridi will also be missed.
“But there are other youngsters who will take their place,” Waqar said.
—UNI