Doubts over Akhtar, Malinga
ColomBO: Pakistan are hoping that Shoaib Akhtar will unleash his pace on Sri Lanka on Saturday (tomorrow) even as the maverick fast bowler spent most of the time on the sidelines during a marathon training session here at the R Premadasa Stadium on Thursday.
Akhtar bowled five overs in Pakistan’s 205-run triumph over Kenya on Wednesday and the visitors are hoping that he will spearhead their pace attack in the more important game against the co-hosts.
But the pacer was mostly seen inactive as other pacers — Umar Gul, Wahab Riaz, Abdul Razzaq and Junaid Khan — had a tough work out during the four-hour training session.
It was inevitable that questions were asked about Akhtar’s fitness but team manager Intikhab Alam tried to quell all fears, saying that the pacer was fully fit and is set to feature in Saturday’s match.
“He is fine,” Intikhab told ‘The News’. “He may not be a hundred percent fit but you could see that he is still bowling pretty fast.”
Meanwhile, the news coming from the Sri Lankan camp suggested that their pacer Lasith Malinga might be losing his race against time.
Malinga missed Sri Lanka’s opening game against Canada and didn’t bowl in the nets here on Thursday.