Misbah not interested in making T20 comeback

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Test and one-day captain Misbah-ul-Haq says he will not return to international Twenty20 despite finishing as the top scorer in the premier domestic T20 competition.  

Misbah scored 206 runs at a staggering average of 103 from five matches and led Faisalabad Wolves to victory in Sunday’s final against Sialkot Stallions. Misbah says he will lead his hometown Wolves in this year’s Champions League.

Misbah had been criticized by some for his slow batting in international matches, but said he now intends to stick with an attacking style.

“I will play aggressively in future, whether I meet success or not is a different story,” he said.

Misbah, who turns 39 next month, quit international Twenty20 last year after playing 39 matches and scoring 788 runs with a decent average of 37.52.

Mohammad Hafeez replaced Misbah as Pakistan’s T20 captain, but he was nowhere near to Misbah’s belligerent batting form in the domestic event at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.

Misbah’s 206 runs featured a dozen fours and as many sixes while Hafeez scored 145 runs from four matches with 20 boundaries and four sixes.

Hafeez’s Lahore Lions which also had star players like Nasir Jamshed, Ahmed Shahzad, Umar Akmal and Kamran Akmal was also knocked down by Misbah in the semifinal.

But despite proving all his critics wrong, Misbah said he was content with playing in ODIs and Test matches for Pakistan.

“I don’t want to make a comeback into (international) T20 and I am concentrating on the cricket which I am playing,” he said.

“I will continue to play for Faisalabad because Faisalabad is my identity.”

Signs of change in Misbah’s batting style first surfaced in the recent ODI series against South Africa which Pakistan lost 3-2.

“If you have seen the last (ODI) series and in this tournament you would have seen a total change in my approach of captaincy and batting,” he said.

“I have decided to play like this in the future too.”

Pakistan’s next international assignment will be the Champions Trophy in June for which the team will play two ODIs against Scotland in Edinburgh and against Ireland in Dublin next month.