KARACHI – Islamabad United coach Waqar Younis has broken silence over theissue of the Kamran Akmal selection in the National Cricket Team.

He said that Peshawar Zalmi opener Kamran Akmal can be included in thenational team as a backup of skipper Sarfraz Ahmed but due to hisquestionable fielding skills, he probably won’t make it to the nationalside.

Akmal is the lone centurion of this PSL season, and was also the onlycentury-maker in PSL 2017. After a topsy-turvy start to this season, thelast few matches saw him smash 107* off 61 balls and the fastesthalf-century in the league’s history, raising the possibility of his returnin the national squad against upcoming West Indies series.

Akmal played for Pakistan in the series against West Indies in April 2017,making a return to the national squad after becoming the top run-scorer inthe last PSL tournament. But he has not been part of the national squadsince then.

Speaking in a press conference ahead of the tournament’s final on Sunday,the former national coach said that as many as 30 years back he made hisinternational debut at the National Stadium.

“I am glad to be back here. And it will be great to see internationalplayers playing again in the National Stadium. Karachi is a cricket lovingcity. I am already getting goosebumps. With the weather suitable forplaying conditions, I predict that it will be a high-scoring match,” hesaid.

Responding to a question, the coach said that if Kamran Akmal is in‘red-hot form’ so is United’s opener Luke Ronchi. Younis added that histeam’s players are ‘hungry and looking forward to delivering tomorrow’.