Misbah-ul-Haq to be presented with ICC Test mace in Lahore

The Gaddafi Stadium will witness perhaps one of the greatest feats in Pakistan cricket in modern-day history. Misbah-ul-Haq, the evergreen captain of the Pakistan cricket team will be presented with the coveted ICC Test mace after claiming the world number one ranking in Test matches. The CEO of the ICC Dave Richardson will be present to make the presentation.

The 42-year old Misbah-ul-Haq led his side to an impressive 2-2 draw in the recently-concluded Test series against England in England, something many top class international sides have failed to accomplish in recent times. This is certainly one of the most historic feats in Pakistan cricket as far as one is concerned.

This would also go on to record the first time Pakistan have been crowned as the number one Test team since the adoption and inception of the World rankings all those years ago in 2003. The 2-2 Test series draw saw Pakistan muster enough points to go atop the rankings and surge ahead of their arch-rivals India by one solitary point.

Their cause was helped by the fact that Sri Lanka whitewashed Australia at home 3-0 while the Indians beat the West Indies 2-0 in the series in their own backyard. Should the Indians have clinched a 3-0 win in the series, they would have gone on to claim the world ranking as well as the ICC mace.

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However, with rain and some outrageous conditions in the Caribbean, the Indians were eventually hard done by as two of the four matches had a rain intervention. The Indians will be presented with another chance of going atop the rankings in the upcoming New Zealand series.

Reports and calculations go on to suggest that should the Indians be able to pull off a 2-0 win over the Kiwis, they will leapfrog the Pakistanis and go atop the rankings. However, at the moment, Pakistan is currently sitting on 111 points, one ahead of India, while Australia and England are on 108 points each. The top seven Test sides are separated by just 16 points.

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