Aamer Sohail: “I believe that Jamal should be given the opportunity to bat at number four or five, as this is not the way you groom players”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former Pakistan captain Aamer Sohail felt it was unfair for fast bowler Aamer Jamal to bat at number eight in the recent Champions One-Day Cup.
Sohail noted that the 28-year-old showed his skills with the bat in his debut Test series against Australia and thus deserved to bat higher up the order.
The 58-year-old wanted to see Jamal batting at number four or five for the Lions in the Champions One-Day Cup, which was a domestic 50-over tournament held in Faisalabad.
Sohail added that he couldn’t believe Aamer Yamin was batting higher than Jamal – a move he thinks wouldn’t have helped boost Jamal’s confidence.
“Aamer Jamal, who performed in Australia, got injured and was ruled out from the Bangladesh series. But now, when Jamal made his comeback to competitive cricket, it [was] disappointing to see him batting at number eight in the Champions One-Day Cup,” he said on his YouTube channel as quoted by Samaa TV.
“Aamer Yamin is being preferred over Aamer Jamal. I believe that Jamal should be given the opportunity to bat at number four or five, as this is not the way you groom players. There is a need to boost Jamal’s confidence so that he even performs better for the Pakistan national cricket team in a more definite way.”
In the Champions One-Day Cup, Jamal scored four runs in two games and took five wickets at an average of 25.80.
The Mianwali native did not feature in Pakistan’s two-Test series against Bangladesh, but was picked for the ongoing three-Test series against England, where he has claimed one wicket in two matches at an average of 165.
He has also scored 100 runs, which includes a top score of 55 not out, at an average of 33.33.
The series between Pakistan and England is tied at 1-1 going into the third Test, which gets underway on October 24 in Rawalpindi.
Pakistan Squad for 2nd and 3rd Tests against England: Shan Masood (captain), Saud Shakeel (vice-captain), Aamer Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Haseebullah Khan (wicketkeeper), Kamran Ghulam, Mehran Mumtaz, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Ali, Muhammad Hurraira, Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper), Noman Ali, Saim Ayub, Sajid Khan, Salman Ali Agha, Zahid Mahmood.
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