It almost always begins like that. When you get Pakistan captaincy for the first time there are celebrations all around. You get a pat on your back from those who have always supported you and even from the ones who did the exact opposite. You are hailed as the best choice to lead the national team. There is a chorus of praise in the abilities you have and even in the ones you don’t.

On your part, you are naturally exhilarated as after all leading your country at the international level is indeed a huge honour. You are buoyed up and are confident that you will succeed where your predecessors failed.

The sad part is that you could be wrong.

Ask the likes of Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan or more recently Shahid Afridi, and they will tell you, forgive me for the clichéd phrase, that Pakistan captaincy is no bed of roses.

They were all highly accomplished cricketers and most of them achieved greatness playing for Pakistan. But their captaincy stints weren’t that great. Due to one reason or the other, they bowed out as captains on mostly sad notes.

However, that doesn’t mean you are going to meet a similar fate. After all, there have been successful Pakistani captains like Imran Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq.

If you give your best both as Pakistan’s wicketkeeper-batsman and their captain, there is a big chance that the team will also do well. You certainly have the abilities to be the sort of leader that Pakistan desperately need in the aftermath of their World Twenty20 heartbreak.

You are a natural fighter. I was there in Auckland admiring that quality in you when you tore apart South Africa’s much-trumpeted pace attack in a match-winning 49 that literally took Pakistan into the World Cup quarter-finals last year.

I was also there at the World Twenty20 championship in  India last month where the people in power made sure that you had minimal opportunity to repeat your Auckland heroics.

You have seen both the good times and bad. I know that it’s easier said than done but you should try to forget all the wrongs done to you and stay positive. What has happened cannot be undone. Only a positive captain can transform his team into a unit.

That said, you should also keep your eyes and ears open. Pakistan cricket, as you must know by now, can be a den of conspiracies. Board officials, team management and your own team-mates and sometimes all of them together can gang up on you.

However, you cannot and should not be occupied with the idea of fighting off conspiracies against you. Be fair to your team-mates by always backing them even when the going gets tough.

Time flies. You are just 28 and I’m sure your best years are ahead of you. But in a whiff you will be somewhere near 40 and either your career will be over or will be getting there. You could go down in the annals of Pakistan cricket history as a player as well as a captain with his head held high. Or you can bow out like some of your predecessors, wondering how you squandered the opportunities you had.

Much will depend on the decisions you make as captain and the hard work you put in as a player. The choice is yours. You can sink or you can swim. You have already achieved a lot by just getting to the place where you are right now, against all odds.

But you should know that you belong here. You have the guts, the talent and the hunger to achieve greatness and in the process turn Pakistan into a world-beating team. The world is your oyster.

You could be a captain like Imran or Misbah, always striving to bring the best out of your players.

There is so much that you can achieve as Pakistan’s skipper. It’s true that at the moment you are just the country’s captain in the T20 format. With the next World Twenty20 years away, there isn’t any big assignment for your team in this format anytime soon. But from where I see it, captaining Pakistan in T20 Internationals is just a start for you. If you prove your selection right and pull the T20 team out of its current mess then the next challenge will be One-day Internationals and Tests. You can be the long-term captain for Pakistan in all three formats. All you need is to always put your best foot forward. Everything will soon fall into place.