Why http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Nasir-Jamshed-c78752 and Umar Akmal should be in the Test team – Part Two
Continued from the previous part...
Kohli is no doubt a world-class player, who has grabbed his opportunities with both hands. However, one must credit the team management for the young right-hander’s development.
Akmal has never enjoyed such support and might have even lost his place in the limited-over side this year, had he not played some timely knocks.
The middle-order batsman has so far played 16 Test matches for the country, scoring more than a thousand runs, with the help of a century and six fifties. Umar scored a hundred in his maiden Test match against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 at Dunedin
but unfortunately, that remains his sole three-figure score in the five-day version.
The Lahore-born player looked a much better batsman in the recently-concluded http://www.senore.com/Cricket/ICC-World-Cup-2011-c100625 World T20 2012, playing a couple of brilliant innings under trying circumstances, which is a great sign for the future of Pakistan cricket.
In order to regain his place in the Test side, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Syed-Zaheer-Abbas-Kirmani-c92392, one of the best batsmen produced by Pakistan, believes that the right-hander needs to enhance his shot-selection. The ‘Asian Bradman’ wants Akmal to play according to the
different formats and not to take things for granted, especially against high-class bowling line-ups.
“If http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Umar-Akmal-c94595 has been playing silly shots in Tests – in other words, playing T20 shots in Test matches then that’s to be expected as these are 2 different forms of the game! He has spoken to me before and I have explained this problem
to him as well,” http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Abbas-c41488 expressed.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755’s current batting line-up in the 5-day format has been doing well in recent past but they are all one-dimensional batsmen, who struggle to increase the scoring-rate, which is often needed in Test cricket as well.
The Green Shirts desperately need a player in the middle-order who can take the attack to the opposition and play well with the tail. There is no better batsman in the country who can do the job better than Umar.
On top of that, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Younis-Khan-c98325 and Misbah-ul-Haq are at the twilight of their careers and are most likely to retire from international cricket within a couple of years. Hence, the selection committee should foresee the future and allow
youngsters like Akmal to develop their game.
Pakistan’s wicketkeeper/batsman and Umar’s elder brother, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Kamran-Akmal-c70122, is confident that the youngster will make a successful comeback in Test cricket in future. However, Kamran also agrees that the talented batsman needs to show
more application, if he wants to make a mark against the best in the business.
He mentioned, “He just needs to bat according to the team plan. Highs and lows are all part of cricket and Umar does not need to feel down or disappointed, he just needs to channel his mind to staying at the wicket and playing each
ball on its merit.”
Umar has a fascinating average of 47.83 runs per innings in first-class cricket, having scored almost four thousand runs, which proves that he has it in him to deliver the goods in the longer format as well.
For Pakistan’s last Test series against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Misbah-ul-Haq-c1972 and company’s next assignment in Test cricket
against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 early next year.
To be continued…
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