Pakistan batsman Umar Akmal comes up with serious allegations against Waqar Younis

Pakistan batsman Umar Akmal has been always in-and-out of the national team in his international cricketing career so far. After being out of the radar from the national team for over a year now, Umar has come up with some serious allegations against the former Pakistan team head coach Waqar Younis. He has revealed that Waqar forced him to take the wicket-keeping duties in Test matches else he would have been thrown out of the Pakistan team.

I accepted the job of a wicket-keeper in the 50-over format: Umar

Akmal made his international debut in the ODIs against New Zealand in 2009 as a middle-order batsman, after which he was asked to don the gloves in the ODI format. Recently during the finals of the Pakistan Cup, the wicket-keeper batsman revealed that he refused to perform the role of wicket-keeper in Test matches when the head coach Waqar had asked him to do so. He stated that the reason for his refusal then was that in the upcoming series Pakistan were playing with three specialist spinners and one fast bowler.

Umar had donned the gloves for three to four years in the limited overs format for his national team. He reckoned that performing the role of wicket-keeper in Test matches will have adverse effects on his batting.

“Talking about Pakistan cricket team, I accept that I refused to perform wicket-keeping duties in Test matches, however, I did wicket-keeping in limited overs cricket for three [to] four years. There our coach back then Waqar Younis told me to do wicket-keeping in Test matches, but I refused because we had a series ahead  in Dubai, where Misbah ul Haq [the then skipper] used to play three spinners and one fast bowler,” said Akmal in a conversation during the finals of Pakistan Cup as quoted by Business Recorder.

Waqar threatened to throw me out of the Pakistan team

The 27-year old mentioned that Waqar was not at all satisfied with his refusal. He also claimed that the former Pakistan fast bowler used some harsh words in the fallout about Akmal’s future with the national team.

“I remember his [Younis] words, ‘I will see who will allow you to play cricket in the future,’ to which I pleaded that I want to play for my country,” mentioned the Pakistan wicket-keeper batsman in his allegations.