Ravindra Jadeja has had a stellar year for India and has now made his way to the top of the ODI bowling rankings.
Mohammad Ali is a right-arm fast-medium bowler from Sialkot. He has taken 113 wickets in his 29 first-class matches to date, at an impressive average of 24.88. In his 14 List A matches, he has taken 29 wickets at an eye-catching average of 18.79.
He also featured for the State Bank of Pakistan in the recently-concluded Ramadan T20 Cup in Karachi and bagged 5 wickets for just 52 runs in 3 matches.
The discussion on whether to play a specialist wicket-keeper or a batsmen who can 'fill in' the role of a wicketkeeper is one that has surrounded Pakistan cricket for some time and is likely to do so for the near future as well.
This leads us to the question - Is Umar Akmal the long term answer to our wicket-keeping needs or should he only keep wickets in the shorter formats? Or the other extreme - should he not keep at all?