Misbah-ul-Haq announces retirement at 43 – essentiallysports.com

In a recent press conference, Pakistan’s Test captain Misbah-ul-Haq announced that he will be retiring from Test cricket after the upcoming series against the West Indies. The 43-year-old Pakistani captain said that he will continue to play domestic cricket, following which he will take a call to retire from the sport.

The current T20 and ODI captain Sarfraz Ahmed seems like the most obvious candidate to take over the reins after ul-Haq’s 7 year tenure as Test cricket captain. However, He expressed his desire to not put too much pressure on Ahmed and that there should only be one captain.

Misbah took over the role of a captain at a time when the Pakistan team was rocked by spot-fixing scandals. During that time, they lost players like Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir. But Misbah was able to reform the team to register a 1-0 win over England in his first series as captain. As the years passed, it took a toll on his body and he experienced a dip in form.

Now he is heading into his final Test series as captain and will be aiming to go out on a high. The first Test commences on April 21st in Jamaica. The second Test is in Barbados and the third a final Test is in Dominica.