Although the fact that Umar Akmal is not a wicket-keeper even at domestic level should be suffice not to have him behind the stumps for Pakistan, still I have to share my arguments with other posters about the repercussions of playing him as a wicket-keeper.

Some people say that Dhoni, Sangakkara and De Villiers keep wickets and yet bat well.
But the truth is that they are genuine wicket-keepers unlike Umar.Dhoni and Sangakkara came into their national sides as wicket-keeper batsmen, De Villiers did not keep in Srilanka recently even though he is a way better keeper than Umar. More over De Villiers is also keeping at domestic level for years.


Our team already has many trundlers in the team unlike South Africa , Srilanka or India so he is needed in the outfield. Don't undermine the utility of having a good fielder in your team .

They say wicket-keeping brings confidence in his game . As a part timer he will continue to make mistakes .So what about the confidence of bowlers when he makes mistakes behind the stumps?
He can also have a sense of security if captain and coach give him confidence but unfortunately they are creating more trouble for their players because of inconsistent selection policies. 

And more importantly majority of our other batsman score rarely . Regular keeper won't do much worse than what our other batsmen barring Misbah , Umar and Jamshed are capable of . I am talking of our batsmen who average in their 20s with a painstaking low strike rate as well.
But if Umar gets injured, suppose 1 week before the World Cup then we are almost done. because not only we will lose a good batsman , we won't have an established wicket-keeper either. 

A regular keeper might bat as well as Hafeez, Shehzad, Asad or Afridi but none of other batsmen in Pakistan are capable of doing what Umar potentially can do in a limited over game for us !

If we get a decent batsman in the playing XI, by having Umar as a wicket-keeper then it makes some sense , but if that batsman is averaging in 20s with a low strike rate as well , then it makes no sense at all.

By wicket-keeping for Pakistan and leagues he could also sustain an injury . 

Do you people really think he is a solution in wicket-keeping department for World Cup 2015? Do they (management) want to go with him as a wicketkeeper in the World Cup? 

But if the experiment fails then they won't have time to try some one else . It will leave us stranded in between .

Discuss!