Kamran Akmal. (Source – Twitter/X)
Former Pakistan wicketkeeper-batter, Kamran Akmal, continues to find himself under public scrutiny and censure. Just days after former Indian cricketer, Harbhajan Singh, condemned the 42-year-old for his racist remarks on Arshdeep Singh during the India-Pakistan match, another incident has freshly emerged. This time, Kamran made a significant assertion regarding his younger brother, Umar Akmal.
Kamran Akmal revealed that he had reviewed statistics about his brother, Umar Akmal, the previous day. He acknowledged that while Umar is not comparable to the Indian icon Virat Kohli in terms of overall stats, performances, and magnetism, the former had a better strike-rate and highest score than Kohli in the T20 World Cups.
“Mujhe stats kal aaye hai, mai baat kar raha Umar ki. World Cup T20 matches mein Umar ke Virat Kohli se better numbers hai. Umar toh Virat ki chhoti ungli ke baraabar hai (I have received the stats yesterday, I’m talking about Umar. In World T20s, Umar’s got better stats than Virat Kohli. He’s not even close to Virat Kohli when it comes to his performances and his aura),” said Kamran on ARY News.
Here’s the video –
Kamran Akmal says Umar Akmal has better stats than Virat Kohli in T20 World Cup. #T20WorldCup #USAvsIRE
Kamran Akmal says Umar Akmal has better stats than Virat Kohli in T20 World Cup. #T20WorldCup #USAvsIRE pic.twitter.com/TnuLhedKa7
— Nawaz 🇵🇰 (@Rnawaz31888) June 15, 2024
— Nawaz 🇵🇰 (@Rnawaz31888) June 15, 2024
Despite the misunderstanding and the erroneous context in which Kamran made that assertion, he was correct nonetheless, as Umar Akmal did indeed exhibit a superior strike-rate (132.42 vs. 130.52) and achieved a higher highest score (94 in 2014 and 89* in 2016) compared to Virat Kohli in the T20 World Cups.
Meanwhile, Pakistan are eliminated from this edition of the T20 World Cup despite having a game against Ireland remaining. A seven-wicket victory against Canada wasn’t enough as a couple of back-to-back losses against co-hosts, the USA, and arch-rivals, India, were enough to make it an improbable task for the Babar Azam-led side.