Pakistan Women Cricket team leaves for Sri Lanka to play World Cup Qualifiers

By
Faizan Lakhani
|
Pakistan Women Cricket team leaves for Sri Lanka to play World Cup Qualifiers

 

KARACHI: Aiming to qualify for the ICC Women World Cup, Pakistan’s women Cricket team left for Sri Lanka on Thursday to play the qualifiers for the mega-event.

Pakistan finished among bottom four teams at recently concluding ICC Women’s Championship which halted Pakistan’s direct qualification along with other featured teams in the event.

The ICC Women World Cup qualifier will be played in Colombo from 7th February to 21st February and top four out of total ten participating teams will join Australia, England, West Indies and New Zealand in the mega-event of women’s cricket, which is scheduled to be played in England from June 26th to July 23rd.

Captain Sana Mir is confident of a good show in qualifying round and ensuring berth to the World Cup.

“We have worked hard in the preparatory camp ahead of the tournament under the guidance of Kabir Khan, it is now the time for our team to transform our learning into our performances,” she said ahead of team’s departure to Sri Lanka.

Pakistan is placed with Bangladesh, Scotland, South Africa and Papua New Guinea in the group B and it will take on South Africa on the opening day to launch its campaign.

“Every game is very important, we have played against South Africa and Bangladesh previously and we are aware of their weaknesses and strengths,” she said.

“Our batting has showcased lot of improvement recently, we are now getting used to score 250+ in 50 over matches, we did well with the bat in New Zealand and I am sure we’ll continue doing well in Sri Lanka as well,” said the skipper.

Batter Sidra Amin, who got injured during training session on Wednesday, could not travel with the team as team management was still waiting for her MRI reports. However, no request of any replacement has been made by the management.

“We are waiting for reports on Sidra, I hope she recovers and joins the team in time as she is our main player and has been performing well for the team,” Sana said.

“If reports don’t come encouraging, then we’ll look for some replacement,” she added.

Pakistan team for the ICC women world cup qualifiers is comprised of following players: Sana Mir, Bismah Maroof, Nain Abidi, Sidra Amin, Anam Amin, Aiman Anwar, Ghulam Fatima, Javeria Khan, Naheda Khan, Sidra Nawaz, Aaliya Riaz, Nashra Sandhu, Maham Tariq and Ayesha Zafar.

Pakistan’s schedule in the event is:

7th February: vs South Africa

8th February: vs Bangladesh

10th February: vs Papua New Guinea

13th February: vs Scotland

Top three teams from each group will play super six round from 15th to 19th February, before the final on 21st February.