Lahore [Pakistan], Jan 20 : Former Pakistan skipper Sana Mir has been dropped from the upcoming T20 World Cup squad and Bismah Maroof will lead the side in the competition.
Mir had played every edition of the women’s shortest format World Cup since the first back in 2009. The selectors have recalled Muneeba Ali and Aimen Anwar, while they have named uncapped Ayesha Naseem in the squad.
The trio have replaced Nahida Khan, Ayesha Zafar and Rameen Shamim in the T20I squad, which lost 3-0 to England in Kuala Lumpur in December last year.
The national women’s selection committee on Monday announced a 15-member squad for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, which will be held in Australia from February 21 to March 8.
Muneeba, who last turned out for Pakistan in November 2018, has been recalled at the back of a prolific National Triangular T20 Women’s Cricket Championship, in which she scored 292 runs at a staggering average of 58.40. In the five innings of the just-concluded tournament, the left-handed opener scored a century in three half-centuries.
Ayesha has been inducted in the line-up for her hard-hitting abilities at the top of the order. The 15-year-old right-handed batter from Abbottabad scored 64 runs at a strike-rate of over 206.
Aimen, the right-arm medium-fast, took four wickets in five matches, bowling at an economy rate of 7.68, comes in as a new ball specialist to complement pacer Diana Baig and left-arm spinner Anam Amin in the powerplay overs. She last played a T20I in February 2019 against the West Indies in Karachi.
Pakistan squad: Bismah Maroof (captain), Aimen Anwar, Aliya Riaz, Anam Amin, Ayesha Naseem, Diana Baig, Fatima Sana, Iram Javed, Javeria Khan, Muneeba Ali, Nida Dar, Omaima Sohail, Sadia Iqbal, Sidra Nawaz (wicketkeeper) and Syeda Aroob Shah.
As part of event preparation, the Pakistan team will depart for Australia on January 31 and will play three warm-up matches against West Indies on February 7, 9 and 11.
Prior to their departure, the team will have an eight-day camp from January 23-30 at the Hanif Mohammad High-Performance Centre in Karachi.
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