Umar Akmal's raw talent needs to be appreciated - Opinion - Part Two
Continued from the previous part …
A number of former greats however, believe that Umar is better suited to the role of late-middle order batting in Test cricket than http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shafiq-c89281 because he possesses more strokes and can take the attack to the opposition.
After being dropped for the Test series against Sri Lanka last year, Umar made a comeback to the team for the all-important battle against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758.
The middle-order batsman has been consistently doing well in limited-overs sport in the recent times and is presently at number 10 on the International Cricket Council’s ODI batsmen rankings, above any other Pakistani cricketer.
However, quite ironically, he has been under the radar by many cricket analysts. Akmal is an aggressive player by nature and no wise sporting pundit will ever advise him to go against his natural instincts. While playing attacking cricket, any batsman can go through a lean patch, but this does not mean that the management should start to put him under pressure.
Despite the fact that Umar is averaging 38.87 and 26.88 in ODIs and T20s respectively, which are better than all the current players in the national team except Misbah ul Haq, the so-called cricket-experts are raising question-marks over his place in the limited-overs team as well.
Such criticism on a young player might have been justified in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755, where most of the batsmen are averaging in 20s or early 30s, it is absolutely ridiculous to shake the confidence of an upcoming batsman, who has better stats than most players in the country.
The youngster is without doubt the most talented batsman in the country and the selectors need to be patient with him, even if he plays a poor shot once in a while. The aggressive batsman should be allowed to bat higher in the order, so that he has more time to build an innings. If he continues to bat at number five or six, where Akmal has to keep up with the run-rate, it will be hard for him to develop the kind of temperament which is needed for a great player.
Another former Pakistan captain, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mohammad-Moin-Khan-c77092, also believes that the talented youngster must be allowed to bat for more overs, as he has the technique and the game to dominate any bowling attack.
“The way he is able to take singles as well as hit boundaries, he could be really useful at higher batting spots. His shot-execution is excellent. His defence is also strong. I feel that he should bat at number three or four, so that his best performance can be extracted. He is a very highly talented cricketer but lacks maturity. He shouldn’t be so hasty in his stroke-play and should calm down a bit. There has been some discussion over his batting spot. Apparently he wants http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Thomas-George-Burrows-c93472o bat up the order but isn’t being given a chance there,” Moin expressed.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Umar-Akmal-c94595 should hold a permanent spot in all the three formats of the game for the Green Shirts and the former cricketers and analysts should leave him alone, so that he can prosper at the international level and bear the burden of Pakistan’s batting in the years to come.
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