Pakistan coach Waqar Younis wants a new wicketkeeper for the national side
Pakistan coach Waqar Younis has finally admitted that the national team needs a new wicketkeeper after a despicable performance by Kamran Akmal behind the stumps in the recently concluded ICC World Cup 2011.
Waqar was addressing the Pakistan media for the first time after Pakistan’s exit from the ICC World Cup 2011 when the national team lost to archrivals India in the semi-final.
“This debate over the wicket-keeper’s performance is a difficult one but I think the Pakistan team now needs a younger wicket-keeper who can carry the load for the next few years,” said Waqar.
Akmal was struggling behind the stumps well before the ICC World Cup 2011 but was still selected for the tournament by the national selection committee. However, Akmal came under fire when he dropped New Zealand’s Ross http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Taylor-c92915 twice in one over who in return
went on to score a century, helping his team post a mammoth total of 302 runs on the board. Pakistan eventually lost that match which was their only loss in the group stage.
Even after his disastrous show against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754, he was kept in the team for the remainder of the tournament as Waqar believed that replacing Akmal with a part time wicketkeeper would not have helped the team in any way.
Nonetheless, it is widely believed that Akmal would be dropped from the national team for the upcoming tour of West Indies when the selection committee meets to finalise the squad.
However, Waqar advised the Pakistan Cricket Board from making too many drastic changes in the squad. He insisted that the team needed to have a proper balance of youth and experience and injecting too many youngsters by showing the door to the veterans will
do more harm than good.
“We need to maintain a balance between experience and youth which will ensure stability in the team,” the Pakistan coach insisted.
Waqar admitted that losing to http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 was disappointing for him. However, he reiterated that the national team had performed beyond expectations of anyone in the mega event and when no one believed that Pakistan had a chance to go beyond the group stage, the
team reached the semi-finals by defeating top teams such as http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760.
The former pace bowler admitted that his side made mistakes in the semi-final which cost them the crucial game. However, he praised the efforts of the Indian team which not only won the semi-final but also went on to lift the World Cup for the second time
in their history.
Waqar’s contract as the head coach of the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 team is scheduled to expire in 2012 which leaves him with one year to introduce changes in the squad. The decision regarding the extension in his contract has not been reviewed by the PCB so far.
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