The Pakistan Women cricket team has arrived at Tauranga from Christchurch New Zealand to begin their campaign for ICC Women’s World Cup 2022. The team had left Pakistan on 9th February for Auckland from where they flew to Christchurch via a chartered flight.
Led by Bismah Maroof, the team started practice in the city after undergoing a mandatory ten days isolation period. To give themselves a boost ahead of their first clash, the girls in green won two out of two warm-up matches against the home side New Zealand women and Bangladesh women with 4 wickets and 7 runs respectively.
Skipper Bismah had returned to the Pakistan team after a hiatus of almost two years. She had left the captaincy after the ICC Women T20 World Cup in 2020 due to personal reasons. In August she gave birth to a baby girl that led the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to introduce a policy of paid maternity/paternity leave for all the players.
The Pakistan Women team will clash with arch-rivals India in their very first match due to take place on Sunday, 6th March at Bay Oval in Tauranga. The match between two countries is always a high voltage clash and attracts the most crowd of all other matches. Speaking of this match, the skipper had hoped that the game will inspire millions of girls to take up the sport.
“This match is a great opportunity to inspire millions of girls in Pakistan and India to take up this sport as a profession. It is the biggest rivalry and attracts innumerable eyeballs. I hope girls in the two countries will watch this match and will be inspired to take up the game.”
The green shirts will play two more matches at the venue, against Australia and South Africa after which they will move to Hamilton to play Bangladesh.
Pakistan squad: Bismah Maroof (captain), Nida Dar (vice-captain), Diana Baig, Fatima Sana, Ghulam Fatima, Javeria Khan, Muneeba Ali, Aiman Anwar, Aliya Riaz, Anam Amin, Nahida Khan, Nashra Sandhu, Omaima Sohail, Sidra Amin and Sidra NawazTravelling reserves: Iram Javed, Najiha Alvi and Tuba Hassan
Also, Read
All things that went wrong with Peshawar Zalmi in PSL 7
