Aamir Sohail: “Why waste a PSL slot on Kamran Akmal if he is not to play for Pakistan?”

Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo

Former Pakistan captain Aamir Sohail has expressed his disappointment towards the fact that Pakistan snubbed wicketkeeper-batsman Kamran Akmal for the ongoing Twenty20 series against the West Indies in Karachi, even though he put up a string of excellent performances in the Pakistan Super League (PSL).

Akmal, who represented Peshawar Zalmi, was the tournament’s second-highest scorer with 425 runs at an average of 38.63.

Given that Akmal was in red-hot form, Sohail pointed out why he featured in the PSL if the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and head coach Mickey Arthur had no intentions of picking him for the series against the West Indies.

“Kamran Akmal had an excellent PSL 2018 and ended up with lots of runs for the runners-up, Peshawar Zalmi,” Sohail was quoted as saying by PakPassion. “Despite that he was ignored for selection for the Pakistan squad for the series against West Indies, which begs an obvious question, why waste a PSL slot on Kamran Akmal if he is not to play for Pakistan?

“It would have been much more logical to give someone else a chance to play in the PSL rather than select Kamran Akmal and then ignore him for selection in the Pakistan squad despite his good performances.”

Sohail also voiced his disapproval towards the selectors using the PSL to pick players.

“There was a lot of talk about exciting new talent coming out of the PSL and Hussain Talat’s name has been mentioned a few times,” he said. “He is a decent player, but he is one who is yet to score even one first-class hundred.

“If the selectors would like to play him as a batsman in the national team, then I do wish him luck, but this is the wrong precedent being set. We are continuing to ignore our best batsmen in domestic cricket and breaking their hearts.

“Instead we are saying that if you can play this ‘get-quick’ runs type innings in a Twenty20 game in the PSL then you have a bright future ahead of you with the Pakistan team. Forget about technique or textbook batting but all you need to do is to hit some fours and sixes in the shortest period of time and you are on your way as an international player.

“If the selectors are convinced that Hussain Talat or Asif Ali type of batsmen will win Pakistan 5 out of 10 matches then I suppose there is a case for selecting such batsmen for the national team. But let me tell you from what we have seen, such batsmen in the recent past have been very rare and all we have seen are batsmen who can play well in one or two games and then flop for the rest of the time.

“We have played many such players in our team before and I do wish him luck. I recall a player by the name of Bismillah Khan who seemed to be setting the world on fire for Quetta Gladiators in 2016 and was termed the find of the tournament at that time but he is nowhere to be seen now.”

The 51-year-old added that the PSL could do more harm than good for the national team and Pakistan cricket overall in the future.

“It appears to me that the performances in PSL are being used to judge and therefore select players for the Pakistan national team,” he said. “Even one good performance at the PSL is being touted as reason enough to represent Pakistan which does not make sense.

“There seems to be a case being built in favour of the PSL as a dependable provider for cricketers for the Pakistan team. We now have a situation where the top performers in Pakistan first-class cricket are not even being asked to come into the PSL draft process so how can such a player ever play for Pakistan?

“As an example, consider Mohammad Saad from WAPDA with nine first-class hundreds to his name who did not feature in the PSL. What sort of a message are we giving to a player like him? How can he ever get a chance to represent Pakistan?

“The PSL is a good addition for our domestic game but it should not be considered the be-all and end-all of Pakistan cricket which is somehow the impression being given out by the PCB. This kind of an attitude carries with it a huge peril. What we are saying to the young and upcoming cricketers is that as long as you can hit a few fours and sixes and be a slogger then you can play for Pakistan.

“As is we are suffering from a shortage of quality batmen and this approach will certainly not help that cause. On top of that, the representatives of the domestic cricket associations who are the providers of the raw material for the PSL are not even invited to PSL which is incredible and not the way forward if we wish to improve our cricket.”