Kamran Akmal

Kamran Akmal is a quick-scoring batsman and a wicket-keeper, who has achieved 6 centuries in Test cricket. However, his first century was vital – his 109 from the number eight position at Mohali, coming in with Pakistan in a lead of 39 against India in the first Test, ensured that the visitors could draw the match. His form against the touring England in 2005 made him one of the most important players in the team. Naturally, he is a batsman that plays lower down the order but has also opened in limited over formats. As an opener he has scored two back to back centuries in ODIs against England. Coming in lower down the order in Test matches, he played one memorable innings. He saved Pakistan from a score of 39/6, scoring a century, to a competitive 245 which helped Pakistan win the match and the series.

His batting was highly productive in early 2006 as he scored seven international hundreds within the space of 6 months. Since his tour of England in Summer 2006 however his batting form dwindled and steadily become worse. His wicket-keeping also worsened and dropped many catches on both the England tour and on a tour to South Africa in early 2007. He then scored an international hundred in the Bangladeshi tour of Pakistan in 2008. He later moved to have some injuries and did not play for some days but later he was again brought into the team.

Akmal was dropped for the 2008 Asia Cup as a result of his poor wicket-keeping. He was replaced by Sarfraz Ahmed who performed very well at the domestic level and also because of Sarfraz's strong showing in the U-19 World Cup. Akmal was named in the 30-man probable squad for the 2008 ICC Champions Trophy.

Akmal was part of the Pakistan team that won the T20 World Cup in 2009. He was notable for his quick stumpings, dismissing 4 batsmen in one match against Netherlands.

On 12 November 2008, Akmal hit three consecutive 6s in the last over. As a result, Pakistan won the first ODI in Abu Dhabi against West Indies.

On 17 July 2010, Akmal was appointed the vice-captain of the Pakistani test squad but later removed because of his alleged involvement in spot fixing.[3]

In August 2012, Akmal was recalled for the three ODI series against Australia.[4]

In Feb–March 2017, he played for Peshawar Zalmi in Pakistan Super League 2017. In the 3rd Qualifying match he scored 104 runs,[5] the first century in PSL 2017. In this match Peshawar Zalmi won and moved to final of PSL for first time.

In the 2nd Test match in Sydney on the 2009–10 tour of Australia, Akmal dropped four catches in the Australian innings, three of those coming from Michael Hussey. Hussey went on to score 134* and was involved in a massive 9th wicket partnership stand of 133 runs with Peter Siddle. Pakistan eventually went on to lose the match by 36 runs, after being dismissed for just 139 in the second innings. Later it was alleged that he, along with pace bowler Rana Naved-ul-Hasan were involved in match fixing, and were questioned by Pakistan Cricket Board and subsequently dropped for the Twenty20 series against England.[6]

In early September 2010, the International Cricket Council (ICC) sent an official notice to Kamran Akmal telling him that he is under investigation for allegedly fixing the Sydney Test. For the subsequent series against South Africa in October 2010 Akmal had an operation to remove his appendix and was unavailable for the limited-overs squad. Akmal was able to recover from the operation to participate in the two-match test series but Zulqarnain Haider was selected ahead of him.[7] Another reason also emerged that Kamran Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Umar Amin and Yasir Hameed were not selected for the tour due to the fact that suspicions were raised that they were involved with the spot-fixing scandal that included Salman Butt, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif. Another player Wahab Riaz was under investigation for match fixing but the ICC had interrogated him and he was no longer part of the investigation therefore he was allowed to take part on the tour of South Africa that included two Twenty20 Internationals, five ODI matches and two Test matches. Though this has not been confirmed by the board, it is believed that the reason they were not picked was that the suspicion had not been cleared.[8] The ICC confirmed that Akmal had been barred from entering the team. Once his investigation was completed he was available for national selection.[9]

Kamran Akmal has been constantly criticized for his lack of consistent wicket-keeping.

After another horrendous series behind the stumps against Sri Lanka in January 2009, journalists and former players called for his removal from the national team.[10] His wicket-keeping steadily improved, with a very strong showing in the 2009 T20 World Cup, including a world-record performance of four stumpings in a single match against the Netherlands. However, during the second test against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground he dropped four catches, including three chances from Michael Hussey in one session on Day 4. Hussey went on to score a match winning century with the Pakistan team losing in a shock result after dominating the first three days of play.[11][12] He was subsequently dropped for the third test, being replaced by Sarfraz Ahmed. After this tour Akmal saw a steady improvement in his wicket-keeping for the 2010 ICC World Twenty20, 2010 Asia Cup and against Australia in July 2010 however the next test series against England saw Akmal drop three easy catches and miss a stumping. The match as a consolation saw Akmal take a superb catch of Kevin Pietersen before dropping a catch on the very next ball against Paul Collingwood. In the first innings Akmal dropped a catch of Eoin Morgan when he was on 23 who then went on to score 130.[13] Despite having another keeper, Zulqarnain Haider, in the squad, Pakistani captain Salman Butt announced it was too early in the series as only one match had been played to decide the fate of Kamran Akmal.[14]

On 13 October 2020, in the 2020–21 National T20 Cup, Akmal became the first wicket-keeper to affect 100 stumpings in Twenty20 cricket.[15]

In the 2016–17 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, Akmal was the highest run-scorer in the tournament making 1,035 runs.[22] In November 2017, he scored 150 not out batting for Lahore Whites against Islamabad in the 2017–18 National T20 Cup.[23][24] He became the first batsman for Pakistan to score 150 runs in a T20 match.[25] He also hit the most number of sixes in a domestic T20 match in Pakistan and became the third batsman to make five consecutive fifties in T20 cricket.[26] During the 2017–18 National T20 Cup he along with Salman Butt set the world record opening partnership in T20 history of unbeaten 209 runstand, surpassing the previous highest opening partnership of 207 in any form of T20 cricket held by Joe Denly and Daniel Bell-Drummond.[27][28][29][30][31] The record runstand was also the third highest partnership in terms of runs for any wicket in T20 history.[32]

In April 2018, he was named as the captain of Federal Areas' squad for the 2018 Pakistan Cup.[33][34] In the opening fixture of the tournament, against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he scored 105 runs and was named the man of the match.[35] He was the leading run-scorer for Federal Areas in the tournament, with 313 runs in four matches.[36] In March 2019, he was named as the captain of Punjab's squad for the 2019 Pakistan Cup.[37][38]

In September 2019, he was named in Central Punjab's squad for the 2019–20 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy tournament.[39][40]

His brothers are Adnan Akmal and Umar Akmal, who are also professional cricketers, the former being a keeper-batsman and the latter being a specialist batsman as well as part-time wicket-keeper. Pakistani batsman Babar Azam is also his first cousin.[41] He married in 2006 former Test cricketer, Mohammad Ilyas, daughter and lives with his wife and children.[42][43] He is a matriculated of Central Model School, Lahore.[44][45]

• Kamran Akmal at ESPNcricinfo
• Kamran Akmal on Twitter