Thaindian News

Karachi, April 7(ANI): Discarded Pakistan wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal, whose repeated follies behind the stumps- including some vital dropped catches- cost Pakistan a lot in the recently-concluded World Cup, needs to “give an outstanding performance” in the domestic circuit to win his place back in the national team, chief selector Mohsin Hasan Khan has said.

The butter-fingered Kamran was dropped from Pakistan’s squad for the limited-overs series against West Indies on Wednesday following a spate of poor outings in the World Cup, giving rise to speculations that his international career might be over.

But Mohsin said that he would welcome back Kamran with “open arms” if the stumper managed to give impressive performances in domestic matches.

“We have decided to give him (Kamran) a break,” said Mohsin, a former Pakistan Test opener. “But now he will have to give an outstanding performance in domestic cricket to win his place back in the Pakistan team,” The News quoted Mohsin, as saying.”Our domestic circuit is pretty easy as compared to international cricket but it’s still a good platform for players to prove there. If Kamran does that then we will welcome him back in the team with open arms,” he added.Mohsin rejected the impression that it was the end of the road for Kamran, who is regarded by many as the most unreliable wicketkeeper in international cricket.”He is still 27 or 28 years old and can play international cricket for four or five more years,” the chief selector maintained.

Mohsin also said that Pakistan had signalled the start of a rebuilding phase for the 2015 World Cup by including several fresh faces in the national team for the Caribbean tour.”There are four or five new boys in the team and that shows that we moving into a rebuilding phase. The idea is to try out maximum possible youngsters on the international stage. The idea is to select the players purely on merit to ensure that we make a good team even with youngsters,” he said.Mohsin said that Pakistan had a number of new and talented kids “who have done well in domestic cricket and the idea is to try them out in international matches.”He said that the experimentation would help the national selectors to raise a strong and balanced team for next year’s ICC World Twenty20 Championship in Sri Lanka.

“The Twenty20 championship is our next big assignment and we want to make it sure that Pakistan take the best possible team there,” he stated. (ANI)