‘Umar Akmal could have been Pakistan’s Virat Kohli’: Kamran’s hypothesis after Pakistan’s T20 World Cup exit | Cricket News – Times of India

The washout in Group A match of the T20 World Cup between USA and Ireland in Florida on Thursday pushed Pakistan out of T20 World Cup 2024 in the first stage itself. The sorry exit of 2009 champions angered the nation and led to a scathing criticism of Babar Azam’s team. Amid that, the hypothesis of former wicketkeeper-batsman Kamran Akmal, with India’s batting legend Virat Kohli central to the context, is both interesting as well as an admission of Pakistan’s past mistakes.
Speaking on a TV show in Pakistan, Kamran suggested that had his brother Umar Akmal been backed and promoted, he could have done things like Virat Kohli has done for India despite not being even close to the kind of talent Kohli possesses.

T20 WORLD CUP: Schedule | Points Table

“Mujhe stats kal aaye hain. Mein baat kar raha hu Umar ki (I have received the stats yesterday, I am talking about Umar). World Cup matches in T20s, Umar and Virat Kohli’s. Umar is like Virat Kohli’s little finger, (compared to) the performance and stature of Virat Kohli, the kind of player he is. (But Umar has) Better strike rate than Virat Kohli, runs as well (in T20 World Cups),” said Kamran in the video clip floating on microblogging platform ‘X’.
“Hamari koi PR company nahi hai. We don’t spread our stats on social media. If these stats (of Umar) were part of these 15 players (Pakistan’s T20 World Cup squad), is waqt tak tabahi aa jani thi (it would have created mayhem),” the former stumper added, and went on to highlight Kohli’s 80 centuries in international cricket.
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Pakistan desperately needed the USA vs Ireland match to go ahead and required Ireland to beat USA to help their chances of qualification for ‘Super 8s’ from Group A. But the no-result outcome gave USA the one point they needed to push Pakistan out of this World Cup.
Now even if Pakistan go on to beat Ireland on Sunday, they will only end up on four points compared to tournament debutant USA’s five. Interestingly, it was the upset defeat against USA in their first match that cost Pakistan an embarrassing early exit.
The history-making US team advance to the next stage with group toppers India, who are enjoying a three-match unbeaten run.