Every team is currently busy in their final preparation for the upcoming Cricket World Cup. Just ahead of this tournament, former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar has revealed Pakistan’s smartest and most talented cricketer at present.
The 2019 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup will run from 30th May to 14th July in England and Wales. A total of ten teams will participate in this competition, including the 1992 World Cup winners Pakistan. Pakistan will begin this World Cup journey on 31st May when they will face Windies at Nottingham.
Pakistan national cricket team is currently struggling in international cricket. Currently, Pakistan is the sixth-ranked ODI team. However, many cricket experts still believe that Pakistan is a dark horse for the upcoming Cricket World Cup. Especially, Pakistan’s 2017 ICC Champions Trophy victory in England is still a fresh memory.
While Pakistan is currently busy in the World Cup preparation, Shoaib Akhtar reveals their smartest and most talented cricketer. The former Pakistan fast bowler claimed that the middle-order batsman Haris Sohail is the smartest and most talented Pakistan cricketer. Akhtar praised Sohail’s batting skills from various angels to prove it.
According to Business Recorder, Akhtar told, “Sohail is the pick of the selection from this [current] lot of Pakistani cricketers because he can construct an inning, take single-doubles, hit big hundreds and has the brain as well to adjust to the conditions.”
The only drawback of Sohail is his knees – Shoaib Akhtar
After making international cricket debut in July 2013, Haris Sohail has played 10 Tests, 34 ODIs and 10 T20Is. The left-handed batsman has scored 726 Test runs (average 40.33), 1,320 ODI runs (average 47.14) and 140 T20I runs (average 20.00). His recent ODI performances as a middle-order batsman are impressive.
Meanwhile, as a left-arm spinner, Sohail has bagged seven and 11 wickets in Test and ODI careers respectively.
He was in the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy squad but didn’t play a match. On the other hand, the national selectors have chosen him for the upcoming Cricket World Cup squad.
Akhtar also added that Sohail’s big issue in cricket was his knee injuries. The former Pakistan pacer further claimed that he faced similar injuries during his international career. But Akhtar believes that Sohail is the smartest and most talented cricketer that fits in the middle-order batting.
Akhtar added, “The only drawback of Sohail is his knees, I once asked him regarding this problem and he told me that he has a genuine problem with his knees like I [Akhtar] used to have. But he is the smartest and most talented cricketer that fits in the middle order, but he is not able to get fit in as other players need to be adjusted.”
Ahead of their Cricket World Cup journey, Pakistan is busy in the five-match ODI series in England. After the first three matches of this series, Pakistan is trailing by the 2-0 margin. In these three matches, Sohail scored 14*, 14 and 41 runs.
Before this ODI series, Pakistan played one-off T20I against the home team England at Cardiff. Though Pakistan lost that match, Sohail scored his maiden T20I half-century (50 runs).