Stani Army

It remains to be seen if Haider will be considered for selection again by the PCB

Pakistan wicketkeeper Zulqarnain Haider has reversed his decision to retire from international cricket and is now hoping to continue his test match career.

Back in November last year, Haider fled Pakistan’s team hotel to come to England, saying that he had received death threats for not taking part in match fixing.

However, after some time to think about the decision, he returned to his home country last month and has now declared himself available for Pakistan again.

Speaking about the u-turn, Haider said: “I have decided to take back my retirement decision in the national interest. I want to revive my career.”

This is a refreshing piece of news for Pakistan. Things looked like getting messy with Haider last year when he left the country. He threatened to ‘name and shame’ players that he believed were involved in match fixing.

However, although he clearly still has concerns in this regard, the situation in Pakistan has changed with regards to his safety. Pakistan’s interior minister Rehman Malik has assured Haider that the player and his family will not be under threat.

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Pakistan have made a number of changes to their Test squad for the two-Test series against South Africa starting this Friday. The most surprising is the inclusion of Adnan Akmal, brother of Kamran and Umar. Adnan, who is the second youngest of the three, keeps wicket and was called in as replacement for Zulqarnain Haider. Regarded as more of a specialist wicket-keeper, Adnan has been quoted as saying that he believes he is the best wicket-keeper in Pakistan. I’m not sure what older brother Kamran will think of that but I guess we will soon find out about the younger man’s credentials.

Want your child to play for Pakistan? Name him Akmal!

Adnan averages just under 23 runs with the bat in the domestics, which is 11 fewer than Haider and 7 fewer than his brother Kamran. If he is any good at keeping though, expect him to cement a place in the side as Zulqarnain has gone into retirement and Kamran is well known for his blunders with the gloves. It means it is a complete turnaround for the Akmal family

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'We're not dumb, we batted rubbish so that we could lose the Test early to give our bowlers a rest'

If just for the sake of our bowlers, then the PCB must react to the current batting situation even if it means sending out a call for Mohammed Yousuf, Younis Khan and maybe even Misbah Ul-Haq. The argument that we should persist with the youngsters would be a fair one in any other situation, but we need to get these youngsters out of the cauldron they are in because this is not helping them or our bowlers.

The longest our batsmen have occupied the crease thus far in England has been 90 overs. With only Asif and Aamer of the bowlers showing any form, and Aamer being just 18, there is a worryingly huge workload placed on the bowlers, in particular the aforementioned two.

Kamran Akmal: The ‘wicket-keeper batsman’
The other thing exacerbating the situation is the dropped catches and general fielding. It is as if the bowlers have to get the opposition batsman out twice for every one dismissal. The chief culprit in this is Kamran Akmal. I stated in my last post that enough was enough, that since Kamran is making the same mistakes and not showing any improvement, then he has to be dropped. The argument that we select him because of what he gives with the bat is a false one. If you look at his contributions with the bat

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