Pakistan’s wicketkeeper-batsman Umar Akmal has been recalled from the Caribbean Premier League by the PCB after he suffered a breakdown while playing for the Barbados Tridents.
A Pakistan Cricket Board official confirmed that Umar has been called back from the league where he was playing with other Pakistani players including captain, Misbah-ul-Haq, Muhammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik.
“The selectors have decided to send wicketkeeper, Sarfraz Ahmed to Zimbabwe in place of Umar for the T20 and ODIs,” he said.
The official said they only knew that Umar was not well and had been called back for medical attention. But family sources said that Umar apparently suffered from epilepsy seizures while on a flight to Jamaica with the Barbados team.
“He is not well at all and fell unconscious on the flight and has received some medical attention in Jamaica,” one source said.
The Pakistan squad has already lost Test opener Imran Farhat for the Zimbabwe tour after he also withdrawn due to personal reasons.
Imran, who has been replaced by uncapped opener Shan Masood, has said he needed to give time to some pressing domestic issues.
Umar, the younger brother of Kamran Akmal, was used as a wicketkeeper during the recent tour of West Indies and performed well prompting the selectors to give him the same duties for the two T20 and three One-day internationals in Zimbabwe.
The Pakistan squad leaves for Zimbabwe on Monday.
