Sarfaraz Ahmed: A waste of space

[phoenixdesi]

Re: Sarfaraz Ahmed: A waste of space

@ManiaX

He’s a good keeper and a decent batsman. He doesent drop sitters like Kamran Akmal, which in itself is a blessing. Adnan hasnt set the world alight with his batting either, so at the moment its fine to have Adnan keep for tests and Sarfraz in ODI.

Umar Akmal should NOT be keeping in ODIs period. He should be allowed to work on his batting, and not be distracted by keeping. We need Umar’s runs, not his keeping ability.

well how about if we create a ODI keeper out of Umar akmal?..not sure of distraction element..if sangakara can score 10,000 ODI runs while keeping 80% of time in over 300 ODIs, why cant umar akmal? I dont buy the argument that he will be tired and that will impact his batting… dhoni is another prime example…there are so many more examples that i can quote.

now i understand that sangakara was a specialist keeper but akmal is not terrible either. He is pretty reasonable and has kept at the first class regularly but to make things certain, umar can be given a task to improve his keeping with a clear mandate that he will be pak’s first choice as a WC in ODIs…

i fail to understated when people say “he needs to focus on batting”…well he needs to focus on batting regardless of keeping…and by focus i mean when he is on the crease! he does not need to spend a lot of extra hours in nets to improve his batting because he is a one hell of a genuine gifted player with solid technique. What he lacks is patience and calmness and that is a different problem.

if we can convert umar into a specilaist WC batsmeen in ODIs, it would bring such a strategic balance into our team. We are and will always be weak batting side and it will open up a space for an extra batsman or an all rounder.