Pakistan national women's selection committee Monday announced a 15-member squad for the ICC Women's T20 World Cup, which will be held in Australia from 21st February to 8th March.
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 last month.
Recent performances in the international and domestic events as well as team combination considering condition Down Under were the overarching principles for the team selection.
The average age of the side is 24.8, which also indicates the selectors' vision and future planning.
As part of event preparations, Pakistan women will depart for Australia on 31st January and will play three warm-up matches against the West Indies on 7th, 9th and 11th February. Prior to their departure, the team will have an eight-day camp from 23rd to 30th January at the Hanif Mohammad High Performance Centre, Karachi.
Urooj Mumtaz, the chair of the national women's selection committee, said: "Jotting down the squad for the ICC Women's T20 World Cup was a tough task as many players had staked a claim in the side. Though the players who have been left out will be disappointed and heart-broken, this, however, should act as a motivation for them to comeback more strongly."
Furthermore, she said the selectors have also valued our domestic competition, while also taking into consideration the players who have been regularly part of the side since the Bangladesh series. "The team has been selected keeping in mind the current form and performances along with the conditions in Australia and, at the same moment, we have come up with the right balance of youth and experience which will complement each other in the mega event," Urooj said, adding: "Though Sana Mir doesn't feature in the 15-player line-up, I believe we still have the desired experience in the squad. Sana has been a phenomenal servant of Pakistan cricket while being an inspiration to many girls out there. Unfortunately, her recent performances in the T20 format were not on her side."
She said, "The Pakistan women's national team's performance graph has been on the rise and this tournament serves a perfect opportunity to this evolving unit to showcase its talent as we aim to continue to move women's cricket forward and look towards the future."
Pakistan captain Bismah Maroof said: "I am pleased that we have come forward with the best possible line-up which has the potential to have an impressive run at the ICC Women's T20 World Cup. We have tried to strike the right balance of youth and senior players. While selecting the squad we considered the recent performances in the international and domestic events. It was a tough decision to leave out Sana Mir. I wanted to have her in the squad over which I, along with the selection committee, had deep deliberations. We had to decide between her and the emerging players who had been impressing on all the stages."
She said, "I respect and support the decision of the major group and hope she will continue to serve Pakistan women's cricket in future with the same passion and energy."
Pakistan are drawn with England, South Africa, Thailand and the West Indies in Group-B.
The Bismah Maroof-led unit begin their ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2020 journey on 26th February against the West Indies Women. The take on England Women on February 28 after which they play South Africa Women and Thailand Women on 1st and 3rd March.
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.
Officials:
Syed Iqbal Imam (head coach), Saleem Jaffer (bowling coach), Amir Iqbal (fielding coach), Gemaal Hussain (strength & conditioning coach), Dr Riffat Asghar Gill (physio), Aisha Jalil (team manager) and Zubair Ahmed as analyst.
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