Umar Akmal: “Waqar Younis was a legendary fast bowler but I could not understand him as a head coach”
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Pakistan batsman Umar Akmal said Waqar Younis “was a legendary fast bowler”, but was not head coach material.
Waqar has served as the national team’s head coach twice, but it was during his second stint from 2014 to 2016 that Akmal had problems with the iconic seamer.
The 32-year-old noted that he “could not under him as a head coach” and was not a fan of his management style.
“Waqar Younis was a legendary fast bowler but I could not understand him as a head coach,” he was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
Akmal is now playing domestic cricket in Pakistan after serving a ban for failing to report corrupt approaches ahead of the 2020 Pakistan Super League (PSL).
He was initially banned for three years before it was halved to 18 months following an appeal in July 2020.
It was reduced once again to 12 months by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), but he was also fined 4.25 million Pakistani rupees.
Akmal represented 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.
He is now playing for 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.
The senior batsman still retains the hope of playing for Pakistan once again, but he was not selected for their 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