Mike Atherton: “Saud Shakeel played really well. Looks a very composed and compact left-hander I thought. He’s going to get a lot of runs in the middle order”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former England captain and renowned commentator Mike Atherton has backed Pakistan middle order batsman Saud Shakeel to score a lot of runs in the future.
Shakeel made his presence felt in the Test series against England and New Zealand, where he was slotted into the middle order to provide some stability to the batting line-up.
In the three-Test series against England, the 27-year-old scored 346 runs, which included four half-centuries, at an average of 57.66.
The Karachi-born batsman followed that up with 234 runs in two Tests against New Zealand, which included a century and a fifty, at an average of 117.
Having shown a lot of promise in Pakistan’s last few Test series, Atherton is confident that Shakeel will keep delivering with the bat.
“Saud Shakeel played really well. Looks a very composed and compact left-hander I thought. He’s going to get a lot of runs in the middle order,” he said in a video shared by respected journalist Saj Sadiq on Twitter.
Shakeel was not picked for Pakistan’s ongoing limited overs series against New Zealand, which began with the five-match T20I series ending as a 2-2 draw.
The men in green are now 1-0 up in the five-match ODI series.
The second game will be held on Saturday in Rawalpindi.
Pakistan squad for ODI series against New Zealand: Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Abdullah Shafique, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Haris Sohail, Ihsanullah, Imam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Naseem Shah, Salman Ali Agha, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shan Masood and Usama Mir
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