Atiq-uz-Zaman: “I have never seen a middle order match-winner like him”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former Pakistan cricketer Atiq-uz-Zaman said he has “never seen a middle order match-winner” like Umar Akmal.
Akmal was once a key member of the national team and believed to be the future of Pakistan cricket.
However, disciplinary issues and inconsistent performances led to him being removed from the side. As a result, he last played for his country in October 2019.
Recently, the 34-year-old was in action in the President’s Trophy Grade-I first-class competition and scored 517 runs in seven matches for the Water And Power Development Authority (WAPDA), which included a century and three fifties, at an average of 39.76.
Given that Akmal is performing in domestic cricket, Atiq questioned why he is not being recalled to the national team.
“Why Umar Akmal is not in this Pakistan team? Is this because he won the case against PCB? Is this because it hurt PCB’s ego? They even tried to block him playing domestic cricket. I have never seen a middle order match-winner like him,” he said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The Pakistan team was recently in action in the 2024 T20 World Cup and lost to the United States of America and India before fighting back to defeat Canada and Ireland.
Despite ending the group stage on a high, it wasn’t enough for the men in green to make it through to the Super Eights.
Pakistan Squad for 2024 T20 World Cup: Babar Azam (capt), Saim Ayub, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Fakhar Zaman, Azam Khan (wk), Usman Khan, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Amir, Abbas Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Abrar Ahmed
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