Shoaib Malik has been axed as the captain of Pakistan cricket team! For me it did not come as a surprise at all. It was always a big question for me why Younis Khan was not the captain as Younis was the only person on the side who had a lot of experience blended with excellent leadership qualities!
Subcontinent teams always had this mindset of making one of the most experienced or main member of the team as the captain. The wrong examples of previous captains included Salim Malik, Javed Miandad, Dilip Vengsarkar, K.Srikkanth and even Inzamam Ul Haq! The basics of captaincy is leadership qualities and ability to hold the team together under any conditions. People like Imran Khan, Kapil Dev, Arjuna Ranatunga and Saurav Ganguly have been true leaders and even some of those short-lived captains like Ravi Shastri have been excellent strategists.
Shoaib Malik always looked feeble and clueless on the field. The captaincy has not only afffected his batting and bowling but also the confidence and motivation levels. First of all, it is never easy to lead a Pakistan team that has brats like Shoaib Akhtar and several experienced players like Mohammed Yousuf. On top of that if you do not exercise your authority and command respect you are a goner and this is exactly what happened to Shoaib Malik.
I have always been a fan of Younis Khan and actually liked him better than Mohammed Yousuf due to his presence on the field and match winning performances away from flat pitches as well. Moreover a captain has to be somebody who is an automatic choice on the side and I doubt if Shoaib Malik can be one in the future.
I wish Younis Khan all the very best and hope that he doesn’t revert to his old habits of taking emotional decisions like quiting abrubtly! He should be at the least seeing Pakistan through the next World Cup!