T20 World Cup: here we go

Pakistan’s build-up to the ICC T20 World Cup has not given satisfactory signals

Pakistan’s build-up to the ICC T20 World Cup — that burst into action in the early hours today for Pakistan viewers with the match between the US and Canada at Grand Prairie Stadium in Texas — did not give satisfactory signals. A 2-0 loss to England in the four-game T20I series — two matches of which were washed out due to rain without a ball bowled — means that the Pakistan think-tank is still struggling to carve out a winning combination. Defending champion England won both matches — the second and fourth of the series — quite comfortably.

With Team Pakistan’s first game of the World Cup just four days away, the playing eleven is still a subject of deliberations. What will be our opening pair — from among Babar Azam, Muhammad Rizwan, Saim Ayub, Fakhar Zaman and Usman Khan — is still not certain. Who among the four pacers, all good — Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf and Mohammad Amir — will sit out is a real tricky one. Whether or not the leg-spin all-rounder Shadab Khan — one of the close confidants of skipper Babar Azam, currently out of form — should make it to the playing eleven is a question yet unanswered. Same is true for young Azam Khan, whose flamboyance does suit the contemporary style of batting but who has yet to prove himself to be an automatic choice.

However, it’s certainly no doom and gloom as regards Team Pakistan’s chances to lift the world title. Known for playing with passion rather than method, the Men in Green have the potential to defeat any team in the competition. There is all the hope that the winner of the 2009 Cup — as well as the runner-up of the inaugural competition held in 2007 and the previous one, in 2022 — will play to their potential and do the nation proud.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 2^nd, 2024.

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