Umar Akmal: “I asked Imran Khan to recommend [the] team management to send me at number three”
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Senior batsman Umar Akmal said he asked former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan to tell the team management to let him bat at number three.
He made this request during the 2016 T20 World Cup, where he scored 78 runs in four matches at an average of 19.50 and a strike-rate of 121.87.
The men in green had a tournament to forget as they failed to make it out of the group stages. They played four games in total, but only managed to win one.
“I asked Imran Khan to recommend [the] team management to send me at number three,” Akmal was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
The 32-year-old has made his domestic comeback after being banned for failing to report corrupt approaches ahead of the 2020 Pakistan Super League (PSL).
He was banned for three years at first, but it was halved to 18 months after an appeal in July 2020.
It was then reduced to 12 months by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), but Akmal was also fined 4.25 million Pakistani rupees.
Akmal played for the Quetta Gladiators in this year’s PSL and made 101 runs in five matches, which included a top score of 50, at an average of 20.20 and a strike-rate of 174.13.
He then scored 135 runs in seven games for Central Punjab in the Pakistan Cup at an average of 19.28.
Currently, he is representing the Jammu Janbaz in the Kashmir Premier League (KPL), where he has accumulated 19 runs in three matches at an average of 9.50 and a strike-rate of 67.85.
Despite wanting to play international cricket again, he was not selected for the ODI series against the Netherlands or the Asia Cup.
Pakistan squad for Asia Cup: Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper), Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Naseem Shah, Mohammad Hasnain, Shahnawaz Dahani, Usman Qadir