The Pakistan Cricket Board has retained head coach Wahab Riaz and the other coaches of the national women’s squad for the forthcoming Asia Cup in the UAE and the Asian Games in Japan. In another surprising call, the selectors have recalled senior batter Aliya Riaz for the Asian Games, even though she has not performed well since being dropped for the tour of Sri Lanka following a poor ICC T20 World Cup. The selectors have also again ignored two top batters, Sidra Amin and Sadaf Shams, for both the T20 tournaments, as both have been deemed to be only ODI players.
The Pakistan Cricket Board has retained head coach Wahab Riaz and the other coaches of the national women’s squad for the forthcoming Asia Cup in the UAE and the Asian Games in Japan.
Sidra scored a hundred in the ODI series that Pakistan lost in Sri Lanka. Pakistan lost both the ODI and T20 series in Sri Lanka and, before that, finished with just one win in the T20 World Cup under the management of Wahab, batting coach Imran Farhat, bowling coach Abdul Rehman and Umaid Asif. Pakistan women’s squad for ACC Asia Cup: Fatima Sana (captain), Ayesha Zafar, Eman Naseer, Eyman Fatima, Gull Feroza, Momina Riasat, Muneeba Ali Siddiqui (wk), Najiha Alvi, Nashra Sundhu, Sadia Iqbal, Saira Jabeen, Shawaal Zulfiqar, Tuba Hassan, Umm-e-Hani, Waheeda Akhtar.
Regular captain Fatima Sana will lead the team in both tournaments after skipping the Sri Lanka T20I series due to her commitments with The Hundred. The eight-team Women’s Asia Cup is set to be played from August 28 to September 13 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, with Pakistan placed in Group A alongside Hong Kong-China, India and Thailand.
