Shoaib Akhtar picks Rashid Latif as his dream wicket-keeper

Former Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Akhtar has picked Rashid Latif as his dream wicket-keeper from the country among all glovemen from Pakistan. The duo played together for the national team for a significant period of time. And it seems that the Rawalpindi express liked Latif’s wicket-keeping a lot as Pakistan have witnessed a lot of decent players behind the stumps over the years.

Speaking of Rashid Latif, he represented his country in 37 Tests and 166 One-Day Internationals in his career while affecting 130 and 220 dismissals including 11 and 38 stumpings respectively in the two formats. The numbers do go in his favour when it comes to wicket-keeping and one can understand the reason why Shoaib Akhtar rates him a lot.

The Rawalpindi express picked his favourite wicket-keeper after the Pakistan Cricket’s official Twitter handle posted a picture asking its followers to chose one dream wicket-keeper. The list had the likes of Wasim Bari, Imtiaz Ahmed, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Moin Khan, Saleem Yousuf, Kamran Akmal and Adnan Akmal apart from Latif all of whom had affected minimum 50 dismissals in their career.

Responding to the tweet, Akhtar, without any hesitation, stated that his favourite is Rashid Latif on any given day. “One & only @iRashidLatif68 any day,” his reply read.

Here’s his tweet:

One & only @iRashidLatif68 any day. https://t.co/p72dz1pCCs

— Shoaib Akhtar (@shoaib100mph) May 9, 2020

Even Shahid Afridi also included Rashid Latif in his all-time XI

Rashid Latif is certainly one of the best wicket-keepers Pakistan ever had. Even the former Pakistan cricketer Shahid Afridi had picked him in his all-time XI recently ahead of all the other legendary wicket-keepers in the world. It was surprising for many too as the netizens had trolled Afridi for his pick.

Though Latif was a brilliant wicket-keeper of his time, his batting numbers aren’t that great when compared to some other players. He scored 1381 runs in 37 Tests at an average of 28.77 with a century and 7 fifties while he averaged only 19.42 in the 50-over format mustering 1709 runs in 117 innings hitting only three half-centuries. Having said that, he also batted down the order for the most parts of his career and did his wicket-keeping job perfectly.