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Ahmer Naqvi

Can a Pakistan captain be judged on stats alone?

Numbers tell a story, but they can be misleading because they don't factor in the chaos that anyone who leads the side needs to deal with

Ahmer Naqvi
Ahmer Naqvi
27-Jan-2016
Shahid Afridi talks to a team-mate,  New Zealand v Pakistan, 2nd T20I, Hamilton, January 17, 2016

In ODIs and T20s, Pakistan have lost more games than they have won under Shahid Afridi  •  Getty Images

What is the definition of a ghatiya sawaal (lousy question)? Recently, Shahid Afridi walked out of a press conference after using that term to describe a reporter's query. The question was regarding Afridi's record as national T20 captain, which is the worst in Pakistani history. It clearly rankled Lala to the point that he didn't even wish to address it, but it did get me thinking about looking at captaincy records from the bottom up.
I had a look at the records of all Pakistan captains in each of the three formats. In order to keep a certain standard of achievement, I only looked at records against the top teams, and only considered captains who had a certain number of matches in charge.
The first, and perhaps most important, code is Test cricket, and it is a format where most long-term Pakistani captains have good records. I decided to disregard results against Bangladesh, who have never won against Pakistan in the longest format (though Rashid Latif's side was run perilously close) but did include matches against Zimbabwe, who have consistently troubled Pakistani teams, particularly during Zimbabwe's mid-to-late-'90s peak. I also had a choice on where to place the cut-off for minimum number of matches as captain. Several captains, such as Asif Iqbal and Javed Burki, had disastrous runs that only lasted for one tour each, but it felt unfair to view their tenures as anything more than stopgap. I decided to go with a minimum of 10 Tests, which meant that Mohammad Yousuf's poor run was among those that were spared.
Under these stipulations, Intikhab Alam emerges with what is easily the worst record for long-term Pakistani Test captains. Alam's reign of torpor in the first half of the '70s saw five defeats, 11 draws, and only one win from 17 matches. It was the nadir for the side, which would be completely transformed under Intikhab's successor, Mushtaq Mohammad, one of Pakistan's greatest captains. No other Pakistani captain who led in at least 10 Tests ended with more losses than wins, though all of AH Kardar, Hanif Mohammad, Fazal Mahmood, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Waqar Younis finished with a W/L ratio of exactly 1. The three early captains in that lot had relatively low win percentages, though, with Hanif's slightly worse than the other two. Inzamam's side had a better record, with a 35% win percentage, while Waqar's team won half the matches they played.
Tests
Captain Span Matches Won Lost Draw W/L Win %
 Fazal Mahmood  1959-1961  10  2  2  6  1  20
 Hanif Mohammad  1964-1967  11  2  2  7  1  18.18
 Saleem Malik  1994-1995  12  7  3  2  2.33  58.33
 Moin Khan  1998-2001  13  4  2  7  2  30.76
 Waqar Younis  1993-2003  14  7  7  0  1  50
 Zaheer Abbas  1983-1984  14  3  1  10  3  21.42
 Intikhab Alam  1969-1975  17  1  5  11  0.2  5.88
 Mushtaq Mohammad  1976-1979  19  8  4  7  2  42.10
 AH Kardar  1952-1958  23  6  6  11  1  26.08
 Wasim Akram  1993-1999  25  12  8  5  1.5  48
 Inzamam-ul-Haq  2001-2007  31  11  11  9  1  35.48
 Javed Miandad  1980-1993  34  14  6  14  2.33  41.17
 Misbah-ul-Haq  2010-2015  38  17  11  10  1.545  44.73
 Imran Khan  1982-1992  48  14  8  26  1.75  29.16
Moving onto ODIs, the parameters here were a minimum of 20 matches in charge, and a consideration of matches against Test-playing sides, but excluding Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. In this table, three of the bottom four entries involve captains who had broken stints. Javed Miandad led the team in four different spells, while Younis Khan and Ramiz Raja had both stepped in as captains before getting extended runs. However, only Miandad can truly claim this excuse, as Ramiz and Younis only had brief spells as interim captains, and had relatively long continuous stints. Ramiz's unbroken stint was the worst for any captain for 20 or more matches, with one win for every two losses. Younis' team picked up two more wins in the same number of matches, but the record is still quite poor.
The only exception in the bottom four seems to be Misbah-ul-Haq, who had a long run as captain, and unlike the others did not face any major player rebellions or senate hearings and the like. His team, however, did suffer from a lack of home matches, and from being banned from the IPL, which arguably led to their regression. However, in a country with such rapid changes in captaincy, it is remarkable that Misbah retained the board's faith for as long as he did, despite the dismal numbers. After all, captains such as Shoaib Malik, Moin Khan, Saleem Malik and Afridi all had significantly shorter runs though they had superior records as captain compared to Misbah. Then again, each of their dismissals involved the sort of off-field drama that Misbah has been spared.
ODIs
Captain Span Matches Won Lost Tied NR W/L Win % Loss %
 Younis Khan  2005-2009  21  8  13  0  0  0.615  38.09  61.9
 Ramiz Raja  1992-1997  21  6  13  0  2  0.461  28.57  61.9
 Misbah-ul-Haq  2008-2015  65  25  38  1  1  0.657  38.46  58.46
 Javed Miandad  1980-1993  62  26  33  1  2  0.787  41.93  53.22
 Shahid Afridi  2009-2014  34  15  18  0  1  0.833  44.11  52.94
 Shoaib Malik  2007-2009  23  11  12  0  0  0.916  47.82  52.17
 Waqar Younis  1993-2003  48  24  23  0  1  1.043  50  47.91
 Moin Khan  1995-2001  30  16  14  0  0  1.142  53.33  46.66
 Inzamam-ul-Haq  2003-2007  72  37  32  0  3  1.156  51.38  44.44
 Imran Khan  1982-1992  137  73  59  1  4  1.237  53.28  43.06
 Wasim Akram  1993-2000  93  51  40  2  0  1.275  54.83  43.01
 Saleem Malik  1992-1995  30  19  10  1  0  1.9  63.33  33.33
Finally, we turn to T20s - the format that sparked this exercise. Once again, I only looked at matches against the top eight Test sides, excluding Zimbabwe or Bangladesh, but this time around there was no need to stipulate a minimum number of matches, because three of the six eligible captains led in only 12 matches between themselves, although Younis' tally includes a world title. Shoaib Malik had led his team to a final, and had a decent record during a time when Pakistan was the best T20 side in the world. Mohammad Hafeez, who took over after the first of Afridi's stints, has a similar record over a larger number of matches. He was the only captain to preside over two World T20 campaigns, and so far the only one to end a WT20 without Pakistan making it to the knockouts. However, both of Afridi's runs as captain are significantly worse, with a record of roughly two wins for every three defeats in both spells.
T20s
Captain Span Matches Won Lost Tied NR W/L Win % Loss %
 Inzamam-ul-Haq  2006-2006  1  1  0  0  0  nil  100  0
 Misbah-ul-Haq  2009-2012  5  3  2  0  0  1.5  60  40
 Shoaib Malik  2007-2010  10  5  4  1  0  1.25  50  40
 Mohammad Hafeez*  2012-2014  24  12  11  1  0  1.09  50  45.83
 Younis Khan  2007-2009  6  3  3  0  0  1  50  50
 Shahid Afridi  2009-2016  29  11  17  1  0  0.647  37.93  58.62
Of course, despite all these numbers there should be some caution before accepting them at face value. Just about every one of these captains has had to face the unique blend of chaos and disaster that is intrinsic to Pakistani cricket, and bald numbers hide the context that necessarily accompanies them. Looking at just stats to explain and understand Pakistani cricket is quite reductive, which is perhaps why Afridi felt such an approach was so ghatiya.
*Jan 27, 11:50GMT: The T20 table incorrectly mentioned Mohammad Yousuf instead of Mohammad Hafeez. This has been changed

Ahmer Naqvi writes on cricket, music, film and pop culture. He appears on Journoeyes and Pace is Pace Yaar. @karachikhatmal