Pakistan are likely to try out wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal as the makeshift opener in their ICC World Twenty20 campaign.

The side's dismal batting against South Africa in Monday's warm-up match has shaken the team management.

Pakistan's batting, which looked brittle in the recent One-day series against Australia too, flopped against the South Africans while the bowlers also failed to impress in the match they lost by 59 runs.

"It is just the start and the players just reached England on Sunday, so they are acclimatising to the conditions. There is no panic but definitely now the option of playing Akmal as an opener and bringing in Fawad Alam in the late order is under consideration," sources in the team said.

Incidentally, before leaving for England, captain Younis Khan had said that Akmal was good enough to bat at any position, including the opener's slot.

"He is a sort of batsman who can take away the game from anyone with his batting alone," Younis said.

Akmal blasted a hundred in the final one-dayer against Australia on May 4 and a half century in the Twenty20 International against the Aussies in Abu Dhabi and Dubai to improve his batting credentials. He batted at number three against the South Africans.

"The management is clear that it would have to do some heavy depending on the spinners specially Shahid Afridi and Saeed Ajmal and they want backup support from Shoaib Malik and Fawad Alam, who is a left arm spinner, as well," a source said.

"The positive thing about playing Fawad at number six or seven is that it adds depth to the batting as he is a reliable and sticky player in any form of the game and he also adds more options to the bowling."

He also said that pressure was mounting on Younis Khan to get going with the bat as he would have to score runs for the team to do well in the World Cup and reach the final as they did in 2007.