Umar Akmal wants to bat higher for Pakistan – Cricket News Update
The young and aspiring cricketer from Pakistan, Umar Akmal, has made a case for him moving up the pecking order. The belligerent batsman wants to add more hundreds under his belt and this can be accomplished
only, if he bats higher.
Akmal, who has often been criticized for not playing big innings, defended himself by saying that, when he comes out to bat, the situation demands him to play aggressively without caring for his wicket,
as there are only few overs left to play and he needs to step up the run rate from the word go. The 21-year-old claimed that things would have been different had he batted at number four.
While talking to reporters, Umar said, “It's a matter of the batting order that I'm not able to score a hundred. When I am batting down the order, I have to bat in a crisis when the top order has stumbled
and sometimes I get fewer overs to bat otherwise I have the tendency to score in three figures.”
Pakistan is due to tour Sri Lanka in June, later this year. The right-hander’s international career kicked-off in Sri Lanka, with an ODI match at Dambulla, and Sri Lanka is where Umar is hoping to take it
his career to the next level.
Umar, the younger brother of the discarded wicket-keeper batsman Kamran Akmal, is determined to bag the Man of the Tournament award on tour of Sri Lanka. The youngster is training hard with the newly appointed
coach, Dav Whatmore at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Lahore, and wants to apply what he has learned so far.
Reiterating his desire to bat higher, Akmal said, “If I bat at the top of the order then it would be easy for me to extend my innings and convert my 30 and 40-odd scores to a hefty innings.”
He continued, “I am doing all the necessary training with the coaches in the Academy and playing club matches to apply my learning. I am setting my target to be the man of the series.”
Pakistan’s your of Sri Lanka comprises of three Tests, five ODI’s and two T20 matches.