Quetta Gladiators match-winning batsman Umar Akmal has said that he hopes to make a comeback into the national team ahead of the World Cup on the basis of his performances in the ongoing Pakistan Super League (PSL) season four.
On Friday, Umar hit an unbeaten 50-ball 76 that helped Gladiators cruise to victory against last year’s runners-up Peshawar Zalmi.
“I want to continue performing well in the rest of the games for Quetta so I can make a comeback into the national team,” Umar said while speaking to local media.
When asked what his thoughts are on the upcoming World Cup in England, the 28-year-batsman said his focus right now is on the games at hand.
Moreover, Umar credited his last night’s win to his older brother Kamran Akmal who was playing for the opposing side, Zalmi.
“Whatever, Kamran taught me, I applied that in the field last night,” he shared. “I want to credit my performance to my brother [Kamran].”
Umar also said Shane Watson helped him along with assistant coach Abdul Razzaq who shared his experience with him. “Abdul Razzaq also shared his experience with me and told me that when you hit the ball don’t lose your shape,” he added.
‘NO LONG-TERM GOALS’:
On the other hand, his brother Kamran Akmal doesn’t have long-term goals and wants to only focus on each PSL 4 game that he plays.
“I don’t have any long-term goals for the tournament. I want to focus on each match as it comes,” he said.
The Peshawar Zalmi wicket-keeper batsman has said that becoming the first batsman to score 1,000 runs in the PSL is far from his mind and instead he is focused on every game individually.
Akmal who has a scored a mammoth 978 runs in the league said, scoring 1,000 runs is far from his mind.
When asked what his thoughts are about his younger brother in helping Zalmi cruise to a win, the older Akmal said, “Of course I am sad that the team lost the match but that should not mean that there should be talks about me being happy about my brother’s performance.”
He added, “Umar played for his team and he played well. It was a good match that went to the last ball.”
“There are plenty of matches left and I will try to give a good performance in them,” Kamran said. “Experienced players such as Misbah in the team will also help us in winning the matches.”
