Frustrated with a string of poor performances, some Pakistani players have resorted to a change of number on their jerseys with the hope that it might just turn things around for them during the World Cup.

Umar Akmal, who rose to fame at an early stage of his cricketing career, was famous for wearing the number ‘96’ on his ODI jersey. But his inconsistency with the bat forced him to reach out to a Pir, as reported by India’s NDTV.

Akmal will now be seen wearing the number ‘3’ jersey during the World Cup, the number previously worn by legendary left-arm fast bowler Wasim Akram.

It was not only Umar Akmal who changed the number of his jersey; Haris Sohail chose to replace his jersey from ‘80’ with ‘89’. Other players with new jersey numbers include Wahab Riaz ‘47’, Ehsan Adil ‘91’ and Yasir Shah ‘86’.

In the case of Mohammad Hafeez, It has been reliably learnt that the opening batsman had to work really hard to convince the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to allot him a number ‘8’ jersey used by former captain and star batsman Inzamam-ul-Haq.

For captain Misbah-ul-Haq, Younis Khan and Shahid Afridi, the jersey numbers have become iconic. Misbah has been using number ‘22’ jersey for quite a while now; Younis has been all set with ‘75’ number and Shahid Afridi is popularly known for his number ‘10’.