One of Pakistan's relatively more well-known batsmen, Umar Akmal, is not a part of his team's ICC Champions Trophy 2017 squad anymore. The 26-year-old has been replaced by Haris Sohail.
It's a shame that Akmal has failed his fitness test at Pakistan's camp in Birmingham, ahead of the tournament beginning June 1 over England and Wales. India play arch-rivals Pakistan in their first match of the Champions Trophy 2017 in Birmingham on June 4.
Akmal, who has 3,044 runs till date from a total of 116 ODIs, never really had a great record against Team India, to be honest. The wicketkeeper-batsman averages just a meagre 15.28, scoring a total of 107 runs from seven matches against India in the ODIs.
Realistically to say, the absence of Akmal from the squad wouldn't affect the Pakistan squad that much, especially in their mother-of-all-clashes against India.
Enter Haris Sohail
Haris Sohail, who made his ODI debut in July 2013, passed the fitness tests with flying colours at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) Pakistan, before getting the green signal from Inzamam ul Haq to make it to the Pakistan squad for the ICC Champions Trophy 2017.
The likes of Umar Amin and Asif Zakir were also in contention to replace Akmal, but the 28-year-old all-rounder remained the last man standing.
Sohail has played only once again India in 2015.
