Umar Akmal must bat up the order: Waqar

Agencies Published March 25, 2014

ISLAMABAD: Fast bowling great and former Pakistan coach Waqar Younis has called for a shakeup in Pakistan’s World Twenty20 line up and advised captain Mohammad Hafeez to utilise the services of young batting star Umar Akmal up the order, who according to the ‘Burewala Express’ was in his ‘zone’ at the moment.

Waqar said he was impressed by Umar's career-best performance against Australia which helped Pakistan register a 16-run win over George Bailey’s men.

“We must take full advantage of the way Umar is batting at the moment and should look to give him even more confidence by sending him up the order,” Waqar said while also praising the role of Kamran Akmal who combined with his brother in a 96-run third wicket partnership.

Umar Akmal smashed 94 off 54 balls to propel his side to 191 before a lionhearted effort by Pakistan's bowlers powered the 2009 champions to a thrilling win over Australia on March 23.

Waqar also offered a word of praise for the bowling attack who weathered a Glen Maxwell storm while defending their target. Maxwell smashed 74 off 33 balls in the run chase.

“Saeed Ajmal bowled really well under pressure when they were hit for runs. [Umar] Gul too seems to be finding his rhythm.”

“They [Australia] were always looking to come hard at us, credit to Pakistan for holding their nerve.”

The former captain also called for the inclusion of opener Sharjeel Khan into the squad, adding he was ‘unclear’ of Shoaib Malik’s role in the team.

“Sharjeel’s talent is being wasted, he would have been ideally suited on these pitches.”

Sport

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Mar 25, 2014 03:48pm

Sharjeel should replace Malik and Hafeez should move down the order. Umar Akmal is best suited for number 4. Also Junaid Khan should replace Bhatti. My eleven for the next game would be: (1) Sharjeel (2) Ahmed Shahzad (3) Kamran Akmal (4) Umar Akmal (5) Sohaib Maqsood (6) Hafeez (7) Afridi (8) Umar Gul (9) Saeed Ajmal (10) Zulfiqar Babar (11) Junaid Khan

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Waseem Jalbani Waheed

Mar 25, 2014 04:23pm

We must not take full advantage of Umar Akmal, I do not know what Waqar Younis is talking about.

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Saeed Khan

Mar 25, 2014 05:17pm

Since Afridi lost his captaincy due to Waqar younis the then coach who was bent upon taking more media attention than the skipper. He has totally forgotten about Afridi's role who came back from giving 15 runs in his opening over and then got the required breakthrough by dismissing the dangerous Maxwell who was taking the match away from them. He then bowled tightly to Bailey and then got him out. He could have Finch also if Umar gul had reacted a little better to the catch presented by his outside edge.

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Muba Khan

Mar 25, 2014 06:13pm

@Waseem Jalbani Waheed: Then maybe you should watch the last match against Australia

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Peace

Mar 25, 2014 06:58pm

Luckily for those drop catches...Umar was able to score some runs. Let him show some consistency before we all get carried away and start to push up the order.

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Dr. Salaria, Aamir Ahmad

Mar 25, 2014 10:49pm

Good advice by a green-shirts cricket legend to Umar Akmal but are the movers and shakers of the Pakistani T20 team listening? I leave the answer to the enlightened, educated and excelling readers and writers of this great DAWN forum.

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dawn

Mar 26, 2014 04:35am

Waqar knows better, but just now they should not rock the boat. Disagree with Umar Gul's inclusion in the team. Yes S.Malik is not deserving nor is Afridi.

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Googlie

Mar 26, 2014 06:34am

Who do SM know to be always in the team despite his poor performance!

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sha

Mar 26, 2014 08:25am

@Peace: There was only one drop catch. And every great batsmen has drop catches. Prime example is Sachin, great batsmen - put also very lucky. Better to play your best batsmen up the order.

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Abassin

Mar 26, 2014 08:33am

@Saeed Khan: Waqar has had all the media attention ever since he donned the Green shirt and terrorized the batsmen the world over with his toe crushers-a legend and true proponent of the art of fast bowling. One is an artist from a golden era of cricket and the other a by-product of mass media entertainment Inc. albeit a good cricketer, but a better entertainer. There is simply no comparison between the two-look at Afridi's on and off field activities and his pronouncements on the subjects of coaching, retiring then returning and recently on the role of women in society. As far as captaincy is concerned it is a whole different ball game-first and foremost requirements are commitment and leadership qualities, either you have them or you strive to learn-there are no alternatives. We should recall that he resigned from captaincy during an important overseas series- a sign of irresponsibility and weakness, with disastrous consequences. He was not ready to take the responsibility then or even now-so the loss of his captaincy is his own doing and not because of Waqar.

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junaid

Mar 26, 2014 08:49am

I don't understand why Waqar Younis needs to advise through the press. He is not part of any type of selection or management in PCB, means his expertise is not required. Therefore just calm down and watch, just like rest of the fans. Though, he was a great bowler but not a good captain, manager or selector.

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Hussain Feroz

Mar 26, 2014 09:50am

Agree with Waqar Younis. I must say that Sharjeel Khan and Umer Akmel should open the inning so that they could take full advantage of Powerplay overs.

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Shafin Verani

Mar 26, 2014 11:09am

My team for the next match would be: 1. Sharjeel 2. Shehzad 3. Hafeez 4. Umar Akmal 5. Sohaib 6. Kamran Akmal 7. Afridi 8. Bhatti 9. Gul 10. Ajmal 11. Junaid / Zulfiqar Babar

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Saeed Khan

Mar 26, 2014 03:08pm

@Abassin: I totally agree that he got the media attention when he was playing but by then the media was not that much expanded. And the cricket was not that much glamorized as it is now. As far as Afridi's captaincy is concerned England ex player and commentator as well as Ricky ponting from Australia and Mike Artheton from England were all praise for Afridi when he was leading the team from the front in the WC 2011. I dont know what do u mean by responsibility, if u regard saying yes to each n everything from the board and the coach as responsibility then Afridi was the most irresponsible captain. But let me tell u cricket is a game which revolves around captaincy. In Imran Khan era Pak did not had as much talented players as it has now but due to his captaincy skill on the field he managed to take wonderful results. Afridi was the same on the field. If u can remember the way Sehwag blasted our premier bowler Umar Gul any captain would have lost the grip on the match but Afridi kept his cool and managed to use the underdog Wahab Riaz to take the control of the match back again.

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Youth

Mar 26, 2014 04:43pm

I think Umer Akmal can comfortably bat at 4, Afridi should bat at 5, Kamran at 6 Hafeez can go down at 7

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tariq

Mar 26, 2014 09:28pm

yeah why not just push everyone who plays one good innings up the order...

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tariq

Mar 26, 2014 09:29pm

why not push up kamran aswell he played good 1 good innnings.... lol

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Imran Quraishi

Mar 27, 2014 12:12am

@tariq: well said.

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what a nation

Mar 27, 2014 12:54am

what a nation. It takes just one match to make zero to Hero or vice versa. lets see some consistency in Pakistan batting first. Fact is , look at the record of Hafeez, shoaib and couple of others. Sharjeel, umer, Ahmed need to be be thought how to be patient and do not do andha donde mara mare. Learn from Indian and australian batting line up.

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kamran

Mar 27, 2014 01:10am

Mr. Yonius- what about our fast bowling? Who should be the opening bowler and 2nd end bowler?

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dr_shahmiran@yahoo.com

Mar 27, 2014 01:58am

He did not praise Afridi on purpose to divert fans concentration towards kamran akmal lol :-) did he forget kami performance in sydney Australia ? unbelievable . I don't care if kami score 20 runs . he drops catch or misses stumping chance of opposite team batsmen and they usually end up scoring 50 or hundred . A wicket keeper first job is to be a good wicket keeper . batting should be a plus ! Afridi is partnership breaking bowler and i think waqar younis should suggest moving him up the order based on his batting against bangladesh and india in asia cup and also against Australia he looked in good touch but only few balls he faced and was not out so any clever man will say it is Afridi who needs to be moved up and be taken advantage of for team . By the way there is no doubt waqar was a legendary bowler but that doesn't make him good coach. In what capacity did he give this advice ? lol :-)

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dr_shahmiran@yahoo.com

Mar 27, 2014 02:03am

Umer akmal can do wicket keeping in 50 overs match so why not in 20 overs match ? give Umer akmal wicket keeping and bring Abdur razzak back in team . Shoaib malik is the leading scorer in domestic . He came back to team based on his performance in domestic . he followed proper channel . you just don't like him because he married sania mirza i guess ;-) come on guys give him chance before kicking him out of team again . Pakistan should play with zulfiqar babay as spinners are very successful in this T 20 .

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Kamran kulskarenaleion

Mar 27, 2014 03:19am

Shahzad, kamran, U Akmal, Hafeez, maqsood, Malik, afridi, Ajmal, Gul, Raza, & Bhatti. No need for more than 3 specialist bowler. Since we have Hafeez Afridi and Bhatti. Bring the batting down to number 8. And play really fast from the beginning. Send afridi no. 3 if you need a boost early on.

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Kaleem

Mar 27, 2014 05:21am

I so much agree with Waqar.....Sharjeel should be in the line up and shoailb should be excluded....he bats way to slow and if we wanted him...we would have been better off with Misbah who guarantees a 50 nearly every time. Also, they should give Sharjeel and Shehzad full license....they're target should be to get us 55/2 in first 6 overs. We will win more if that's the case.

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jasim

Mar 27, 2014 10:47am

your best batsman or in form player should always come at position where he feels comfortable or without pressure. That depends how the openers perform. If Hafeez wants Umar to bat early he needs to show his own confidence at opening with Ahmed Shehzad and put the opposition under pressure right away before his best players (Umer Akmal and Shahid Afridi) can come in and take the game away. The captain needs to encourage the batsmen to not worry for losing their wicket and let them play their own game, which is what this team is good at.

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Mar 27, 2014 11:07am

One should not forget the fact that Shoaib Malik is the best among this lot to play spin. If things go wrong because of spin he can grill a lot of singles and odd cut boundaries too.

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Kamran kulskarenaleionstar

Mar 27, 2014 12:46pm

@dr_shahmiran@yahoo.com: Yaar he just performs in domestic cricket only. Look at his body language. He doesn't look threatening. And when we have other options then why get stuck with him. And for hating him for marrying Sania well it's quite the opposite. We love him only for that.

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markmywords

Mar 27, 2014 01:13pm

Malik should definitely be replaced by Sharjeel khan against Bangladesh and must bat in middle lower order only, secondly if you play bilalwal bhatti you must utilise his batting skills or else no point playing him against junaid khan who is a specialist bowler ...find a place for bhatti as a pinch hitter to boast run rate if possible at up the order. And yes Zulfiqar must play all the remaining matches for sure..

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Amir

Mar 27, 2014 01:50pm

Where is Fawad Alam? Very recently he played very well against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in Asia Cup. He should be in instead of Shoaib Malik.

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S.Miran

Mar 27, 2014 06:04pm

@Kamran kulskarenaleionstar: I like the fact that u love Shoaib malik for marrying sania mirza :-) You are right about him performing more in Domestic and yes he should improve his performance in international cricket. I strongly feel that he should be in ODI's at least if you don't want him in T 20's :-(. Lol His body languauge changed because he is now used walk on ramps lol:-)

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