Babar, Kohli among top-order batters who play technical shots: Umar

Slated to play for Bagh Stallions in the second edition of the Kashmir Premier League (KPL) starting from August 13, Umar Amin — Pakistan’s left-handed, middle-order batsman — said labelling players to play a particular format is wrong.

“All top-order batters of white-ball formats including Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, Rohit Sharma, and Virat Kohli depend on playing technical shots rather than slogging,” he said while speaking with Geo News.

Umar also said he aims to make a comeback to the national team.

However, he termed inconsistency and change of batting order within the national team as the reason why domestic players remain underwhelmed.

“I have played as a top-order batter throughout my domestic career, but inconsistent opportunities and changes in the batting order in the national team impact performance,” Umar said, adding that in the 14 T20s played for Pakistan, he didn’t get to bat on six occasions and was sent to play in the lower order for the remaining matches.

“But I’m consistently performing since last five domestic seasons and matured in my batting abilities,” said the 32-year-old batter.

Pakistan’s 200th cricketer was also rumoured to be in the run for becoming the team’s captain in 2013.

“In 2013, I was the captain of Pakistan’s team A alongside Younis Khan during the practice matches. Back in those days, I learned through media about my name being considered as a captain in PCB’s future plans,” he said, but denied being directly approached by the board.

Speaking with Geo News regarding the significance of the consistent opportunity, Umar said a player should be given ample chances at the initial stages of their career to establish themselves.

“They can be later considered for captaincy,” he said, citing Babar Azam’s example as a cricketer who played consistent matches early on and scored well, eventually bagging the role of the Pakistani cricket team’s captain.