Kamran Akmal

He was born to Mohammad Akmal Siddique, a senior cricket administrator, in a large family consisting of a sister and seven brothers, Kamran being the fourth of them, while two of his younger brothers, Adnan Akmal and Umar Akmal, are also professional cricketers, the former being a wicket-keeper batsman and the latter being a specialist batsman as well as a part-time wicket-keeper.[5] Pakistani batsman and current captain Babar Azam is also his first cousin.[6]

He is an alumnus of the Beaconhouse School System.[7][8]

He married the daughter of former Test cricketer Mohammad Ilyas in 2006 and lives with his wife and children.[9][10]

Kamran Akmal was a quick-scoring batsman and a wicket-keeper, who has achieved 6 centuries in Test cricket. However, his first century was vital – his 109 from the number eight position at Mohali, coming in with Pakistan in a lead of 39 against India in the first Test, ensured that the visitors could draw the match. His form against the touring England in 2005 made him one of the most important players in the team. Naturally, he is a batsman that plays lower down the order but has also opened in limited over formats.[11][12][13] As an opener he has scored two back to back centuries in ODIs against England. Coming in lower down the order in Test matches, he played one memorable innings. He saved Pakistan from a score of 39/6, scoring a century, to a competitive 245 which helped Pakistan win the match and the series.

His batting was highly productive in early 2006 as he scored seven international hundreds within the space of 6 months. Since his tour of England in Summer 2006 however his batting form dwindled and steadily become worse. His wicket-keeping also worsened and dropped many catches on both the England tour and on a tour to South Africa in early 2007. He then scored an international hundred in the Bangladeshi tour of Pakistan in 2008. He later moved to have some injuries and did not play for some days but later he was again brought into the team.

Akmal was dropped for the 2008 Asia Cup as a result of his poor wicket-keeping. He was replaced by Sarfraz Ahmed who performed very well at the domestic level and also because of Sarfraz's strong showing in the U-19 World Cup. Akmal was named in the 30-man probable squad for the 2008 ICC Champions Trophy.

Akmal was part of the Pakistan team that won the T20 World Cup in 2009. He was notable for his quick stumpings, dismissing 4 batsmen in one match against Netherlands.

On 12 November 2008, Akmal hit three consecutive 6s in the last over. As a result, Pakistan won the first ODI in Abu Dhabi against West Indies.

On 17 July 2010, Akmal was appointed the vice-captain of the Pakistani Test squad but later removed because of his alleged involvement in spot fixing.[14]

In August 2012, Akmal was recalled for the three ODI series against Australia.[15]

In March 2013, he played the five ODI matches of the tour to South Africa.

In May 2013, he played an ODI for the tour to Scotland, the second ODI being abandoned because of rain, while few days later he also played both ODIs against Ireland.

In June 2013, he was part of the national squad for the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy.

In April 2017, he played the three ODIs of the tour to the West Indies, these matches being the last time he would play for the national team.

In February 2023, Akmal announced his retirement from all forms of cricket.[16]

Kamran was picked by the Maratha Arabians side in the inaugural edition of T10 League held in UAE.[30] He was retained by the franchise for the 2nd edition as well.[31] Kamran Akmal played in the first edition of Qatar T10 League in 2019 where he was picked by Swift Gallopers.[32][33]

In the 2016–17 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, Akmal was the highest run-scorer in the tournament making 1,035 runs.[34] In November 2017, he scored 150 not out batting for Lahore Whites against Islamabad in the 2017–18 National T20 Cup.[35][36] He became the first batsman for Pakistan to score 150 runs in a T20 match.[37] He also hit the most number of sixes in a domestic T20 match in Pakistan and became the third batsman to make five consecutive fifties in T20 cricket.[38] During the 2017–18 National T20 Cup he along with Salman Butt set the world record opening partnership in T20 history of unbeaten 209 runstand, surpassing the previous highest opening partnership of 207 in any form of T20 cricket held by Joe Denly and Daniel Bell-Drummond.[39][40][41][42][43] The record runstand was also the third highest partnership in terms of runs for any wicket in T20 history.[44]

In April 2018, he was named as the captain of Federal Areas' squad for the 2018 Pakistan Cup.[45][46] In the opening fixture of the tournament, against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he scored 105 runs and was named the man of the match.[47] He was the leading run-scorer for Federal Areas in the tournament, with 313 runs in four matches.[48] In March 2019, he was named as the captain of Punjab's squad for the 2019 Pakistan Cup.[49][50]

In September 2019, he was named in Central Punjab's squad for the 2019–20 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy tournament.[51][52]

In January 2023, he became the head of a selection committee for domestic age-group teams, conducting trials for the selection of the U-13, U-16 and U-19 regional and district sides.[53]

In February 2023, he was also made a member of Haroon Rasheed's national selection committee.[54]

Later in February 2023 he withdrew from the senior and junior selection panels as he had a contract with some private TV channel for the coverage of 2023 PSL, and found that appearing there as a PCB official would lead to a conflict of interest.[55]

In February 2023, he was appointed the batting mentor for Peshawar Zalmi.[56] Akmal also served as the head coach of Peshawar for an exhibition match against the Quetta Gladiators when regular head coach, Daren Sammy, was not available.[57]

• Kamran Akmal at ESPNcricinfo
• Kamran Akmal on Twitter