Pakistani wicketkeeper-batsman Kamran Akmal thinks that the pressure of keeping wicket is affecting his younger brother Umar Akmal's batting.
Kamran, who last played for Pakistan in April 2014 during the Group 2 game against West Indies in the World T20 tournament in Bangladesh, feels that his brother Umar's batting is being affected due to his wicket keeping duty much the same as India's former skipper Rahul Dravid.
Kamran said that Dravid's batting also suffered when he was asked to keep wicket by India. He added that Umar is not a natural wicketkeeper and that does have an affect, Pak Passion reported.
Kamran, who has played 261 international games, also said that if one has been keeping wicket all his life then that makes a huge difference compared with someone who has only kept wicket sometimes.
He feels that fitness affects ones wicket-keeping too as a player is required to use muscles that as a non wicket-keeper one does not use regularly. So, Kamran said that as a result of that, Umar's fitness is hindering his batting particularly when he's been in the field first.
Kamran said that it is something that the management need to look at as he believes that if they played Umar purely as a batsman he would perform a lot better than he is as a wicketkeeper-batsman.
