Mohammad Akram impressed by Ehsan Adil’s performance on debut

Mohammad Akram, the bowling coach of the national team, is extremely disappointed that Umar Gul and Junaid Khan have not been able to take part in the last Test of the three-match series against South Africa at Centurion. The former cricketer however, is impressed by Ehsan Adil, who picked up a couple of important wickets on day one.

The Green Shirts were expected to create a lot of trouble for South Africa in the Test series because of a potent bowling attack. However, the Proteas have proved once again that they are the best Test team of the world at the present moment.

Pakistan feels a little unlucky that Junaid, their premier fast bowler, failed to take part in the battle after the Johannesburg Test as the left-armer injured his leg. Gul also failed to recover from fever in time to be included in the playing eleven for the third Test.

As a result, Rahat Ali and Adil got an opportunity to showcase their skills against one of the finest batting line-ups of the world. The two of them bowled well in patches, picking up five wickets between them on the opening day of the fixture.

Akram, while talking to reporters after the first day, admitted that the team management had no plan to play Adil if Junaid and Gul were fit. He expressed that the young pacer was brought to South Africa just to gain some experience.

“We brought him on this tour to give him some exposure,” the bowling coach said. “We started a policy to take young players with us since we do not have international a cricket in Pakistan because then they can learn from being around the squad.”

After dismissing Graeme Smith and Faf du Plessis, Adil was a touch expensive in his latter spells; however, Akram is satisfied with the performance of the youngster, who was up against some world-class operators.

“We didn’t have any choice,” Akram added. “There are a lot of injuries in our camp but Gul and Junaid were our first choice. He bowled well this morning even though there were a bit of nerves because of the debut. It became difficult later on, especially against players like AB de Villiers and Amla.”

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Posted by Yasir Hashmi on Feb 23 2013. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.