Nida Dar has survived a dip in personal form as well as team results to retain the captaincy of Pakistan for the Women’s Asia Cup 2024. There are notable omissions and additions to the team that went winless on their T20I and ODI tour of England last month, with batters Ayesha Zafar and SadafShamas notable absentees.
The 15-member squad for the tournament, which will be held in Dambulla in Sri Lanka, from July 19 to July 28, also sees Natalia Pervaiz, RameenShamim, Umm-e-Hani and Waheeda Akhtar left out, while four players who weren’t part of any international cricket in 2024 get call-ups. Batting allrounderIramJaved, who hasn’t played T20I cricket since Pakistan’s tour of Bangladesh last year is back in the squad, while OmaimaSohail and SyedaAroob Shah come back for the first time since Pakistan’s tours against New Zealand and South Africa respectively last year. TasmiaRubab, the 22-year-old left-arm fast bowler, considered a rising star within Pakistan’s bowling ranks, comes into the international fold for the first time.
The large number of changes to a women’s squad borders on unprecedented in Pakistan cricket, and could potentially represent a shake-up of the core of the women’s side going forward. Pakistan recently announced a new head coach for the tournament, with Mohammad Wasim given the reins, while Junaid Khan will serve as assistant coach and AbdurRehman as spin-bowling coach. They have, however, not been given long-term roles, and are at present slated to serve for just the Asia Cup.
The squad was announced following a four-day camp in Karachi, which concluded on June 29, with another one to follow in the same city from July 5 to July 16.
Pakistan have endured deteriorating results consistently for the last 18 months, with T20I series wins against South Africa at home and New Zealand away aberrations to the larger trend. The recent home series against West Indies saw the visitors win seven of the eight games, while Pakistan went winless across formats in England in May.
In late 2022, former PCB chairman Ramiz Raja originally promised that a women’s T20 league would be held in Pakistan, but the administrative flux that followed saw him removed two months later; three different men as served as chair since. Actual progress, consequently, has stalled, as three exhibition matches held concurrently with the PSL in 2023 were not followed up by any further games this year. Despite multiple players of the women’s side repeatedly calling for a women’s T20 league, promises to hold such an event remain decidedly vague.
Meanwhile, SnehRana couldn’t stop smiling. She’d just picked up 8 for 77, the third-best figures in an innings. She had taken six of the seven wickets to fall on the morning of the third day. India were 337 runs ahead and had just enforced the follow-on. There were signs of wear and tear in the wicket and Rana had looked unplayable in the first hour. Ominous signs for South Africa, with two more days to go.
South Africa had stayed up to watch their men’s team lose the T20 World Cup final to India the previous night. On Sunday morning, the women were determined to put on a good show in solidarity with the men, batting coach Baakier Abrahams revealed.
But Rana had woven her magic in the first hour. A surprisingly pleasant morning in Chennai had drawn a lot bigger crowd than the previous two days. The fans celebrated each South African wicket to fall in the morning with loud cheers, and were settling in to watch India – this time, the women – break South African hearts again.
Anneke Bosch’s wicket had brought SuneLuus to the middle to join Laura Wolvaardt. Luus had made a gritty 65 in the first innings but had been undone by a sharply spinning Deepti Sharma delivery. Within 24 hours, she had to do it all over again. The same routine of staying in the middle, to block, grind, and wait for the bad balls.
