Pakistan wicket-keeper batsman Umar Akmal has never been a constant member of the national squad all through his career. After being out of contention from the national team for over a year now and he has now come up with some serious accusations against the former Pakistan team head coach Waqar Younis. He has revealed that Waqar forced him to don the wicket-keeping gloves in Test matches else he would have been thrown out of the Pakistan team.

Akmal made his international debut in the ODIs against New Zealand in 2009 as a middle-order batsman, after which he was asked to perform the wicket-keeping duties in the ODI format. Recently during the finals of the Pakistan Cup, Umar revealed that he denied standing behind the wickets with gloves on in Tests when the head coach Waqar had asked him to do so. He stated that the reason for his denial then was that in the upcoming series Pakistan was playing with three specialist spinners and one fast bowler.

Umar performed the wicket-keeping duties for three to four years in the ODIs and T20Is for Pakistan. He reckoned that performing the role of wicket-keeper in Tests will have adverse effects on his batting.

As quoted in Business Recorder, during the finals of the Pakistan cup, Akmal said, “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. 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.”

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Akmal also mentioned that Waqar was not at all satisfied with his denial as he claimed, “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.”