Misbah likely to take over T20 captaincy

LAHORE - The Pakistan Cricket Board is considering making vice captain Misbahul Haq captain of the national T20 team in place of Younis Khan who has decided to retire from the format. Younis announced his retirement from the T20 cricket after the Pakistan team won the second edition of the World Championship last month In England. And even after several attempts from different quarters, Younis did not show any plans to revert his decision. The PCB is taking the decision, as reports suggest, probably to end grouping in the team which is believed to have affected team performance during the Sri Lanka tour. Even some former cricketers have suggested sacking of senior players like Shoaib Malik, Misbahul Haq and Kamran Akmal, which the reports suggested are having differences with the captain and the reports of argument between Misbah and Younis during the T20 World Cup is being taken as the main reason behind the grouping. But vibes coming from the PCB suggest that the board itself was in a fix because some of the officials wanted to make Shahid Afridi captain of the team for the format and Afridi has also shown willingness to lead the team but the PCB also wanted to end the grouping in the team. During the series and just before the third and final test match, the team officials held a nearly five hours team meeting to end bickering in the team but the Sri Lankan team captain Kumar Sangakkara played out an entire last day to save the match and deny Pakistan a consolation win. Pakistan will be playing the only t20 match of the series against Sri Lanka on August 12 and interim selection committee chairman Wasim Bari has decided to give Misbah the reigns of captaincy but its not clear as yet whether Younis will be part of the team or not that will play the format match.

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