Kamran Akmal thinks more than anyone, his younger brother Umar Akmal, should have been part of the team.
Pakistan’s wicketkeeper batsman, Kamran Akmal, advises skipper, Babar Azam, to prioritize Pakistan’s interests and consider them while selecting the team, rather than personal preferences or biases.
In an exclusive interview with a local media news channel, Kamran highlights team’s reliance on liking and disliking for selection process.
“Keep your personal agendas aside, drafting a team should be about putting Pakistan first, not personal agendas or preferences. It’s concerning to see players being shifted between formats based on connections rather than performance. We can’t afford to treat team selection like a game of musical chairs,” said Kamran.
“The team selection should not be based on transitioning players between formats solely on the basis of their connections in the board. It’s not right to include someone in the ODI lineup just because they didn’t perform well in T20I. This seems like a game of musical chairs, and it’s not fair to the team or the players,” said Kamran Akmal.
While the selection seems decent enough, the wicketkeeper-batsman isn’t much happier with the selected squad. He thinks, more than anyone, his younger brother Umar Akmal, should have been part of the team.
“Teams shouldn’t be based on liking or disliking. Umar deserves to be part of the team. Change of faces at higher levels should come with change of approach and selection criteria. I don’t think they’re dealing with Umar appropriately. He deserves to play for the national side.” – Kamran Akmal.
“The team captain should also think about this, not only the selection committee. He’s been with the team for the last four to five years, he should look for the ground requirements of the team,” he concluded.
Shaheen Shah Afridi is set to return to international cricket after four months when he was named in the Pakistan T20I and ODI squads for the series against New Zealand, which will be played in Lahore, Rawalpindi and Karachi from 14 April to 7 May.
Apart from Shaheen, also returning to both the squads are Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf and Mohammad Rizwan. All these players had rested for last month’s three-T20I series against Afghanistan in Sharjah.