As Angelo Mathews and Misbah-ul-Haq look
across their battlements in Sri Lanka, they may meet each other's gaze,
and know they are a lot alike
Sometimes in the cosmic journey, life contrives for kindred souls to
cross paths: two people who may be separated geographically, ethnically,
economically, even politically, but who are one at the most elemental,
human level.
As Angelo Mathews and Misbah-ul-Haq look across their battlements in Sri Lanka, they may meet each other's gaze, and know they are a lot alike.
The last time
the two met in Tests, they could not have had more disparate days.
Defending a 1-0 series lead, Mathews embraced an extreme form of
conservatism and his team drowned in it on the final day in Sharjah.
With no choice but to launch an unrelenting attack, Misbah kept his side
in the match long enough, until after a whirl of bludgeoned drives and
reverse-sweeps from way outside leg stump, he hit the winning run to
complete a frenetic victory.
Pakistan have been dormant in Tests since that day, but Mathews has had a
busy six months, in which both he and his leadership have grown up, and
grown old - grown a little more like Misbah. Now, when Mathews speaks
or acts, he is defined by a sense of unshakeable calm. A lot has
happened to him in the recent past, with a series win in England and
loss at home against South Africa, but a short time after coming off the
field, Mathews was no more delighted at Headingley than he was
distraught at the SSC. Misbah is past 40 now. Though at times he still
bats like he is 25, there is a timeless stoicism to everything in his
every move. His words are delivered in grey baritone.
Neither captain is an exemplary tactician, but both are natural leaders
in other ways. Misbah's batting average is almost 28 runs better when he
is captain. In 11 Tests at the helm, Mathews has statistically been
more than twice as good as he was before. They have each inherited a
legacy of instability, with captains coming, going and occasionally
coming again in the few years before they each took the helm. But since
Misbah has had the reins, Pakistan's road has been less rocky. Sri Lanka
had been energetic and instinctive under Mahela Jayawardene, but since
Mathews has helmed them, his iron resolve has seeped into his team's
cricket as well.
There is no doubt who is the more talented cricketer. Misbah is
routinely secure and imposing when he wishes to be. But in 2014, Mathews
has been a complete batsman, on every kind of surface, in any
situation. They both make dour beginnings; that first impulse is always
"safety first". But they are also equipped with the skill, and the will
to quickly gather pace. For Misbah, the big blows often come suddenly,
on the leg side, in the arc between wide long-on and square leg.
Mathews, increasingly, just clobbers them where he likes.
Neither are ungainly batsmen, but no one could ever mistake them for
artists either. They are too sensible to fuss with aesthetics. Both hail
from cricket cultures that celebrate flamboyance - more true for
Misbah, perhaps, than for Mathews - but they leave the pretty stuff to
their team-mates and take the utilitarian road themselves. Misbah is
wise enough to know aggression is critical to the cricket some batsmen
play, but Mathews is still learning that others cannot absorb pressure
as passively as he can. "We threw away our wickets" is a common
complaint. Rarely is Mathews among the "we" in that sentence. So many
times he has been like the band that plays a sombre tune while the ship
sinks in a panic around him. No one knows that feeling better than
Misbah.
There is also no doubt who has the tougher assignment. Eighteen months
into his captaincy, Mathews has seen the entire spectrum of
administrative bungling, from two contracts standoffs to seniors'
tussles with the made-men at Maitland Place. But beyond the spectre of
match-fixing that Misbah has worked to leave behind, the board he
reports to is in so much disarray, SLC seems like a Sunday afternoon
book club in comparison. Every person Misbah meets could be PCB chairman
in 20 minutes' time. Or the next Test-match opener.
Grim-faced and unflappable, it is also sometimes easy to cast Misbah as a
sort of tragic hero. He is all the more likeable because of it. If the
young players in Sri Lanka's middle order continue to show they are poor
replacements for the seniors about to bow out of the game, Mathews may
well become a tragic hero himself, in years to come. He is perhaps the
luckier of the two because if he carries himself with the grace and
dignity Misbah manages, he is not likely to be accused of being too
square, as Misbah often is.
Their teams arrive in Galle, evenly matched and familiar with each
other's talents and points of weakness. Steady, courageous and possessed
of a slow-burning charisma, the cricket Mathews and Misbah play over
the next few weeks will be intriguing, not just for choices they make,
but for the moves they elicit from one another.
Andrew Fidel Fernando is ESPNcricinfo's Sri Lanka correspondent. @andrewffernando
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