Pakistan’s Women’s Asia Cup campaign has been thrown under pressure after a disastrous outing against India, but mentor Wahab Riaz remains convinced that his team has what it takes to win the tournament. Despite being dismissed for only 55 against their arch-rivals, Riaz insisted that Pakistan remain the strongest team in the competition and backed the squad to recover from the heavy defeat.
‘I believe that all the players in our team are very skilful and they just need to trust themselves. Our next match is against Hong Kong. We will go back and discuss what we did wrong against India. We will try not to commit the same mistakes. India’s spinners were central to the collapse. Shree Charani and Prema Rawat picked up three wickets each, while Deepti Sharma claimed two for five. Fatima Sana offered some resistance with the ball after taking charge of the chase early. The Pakistan captain dismissed Shafali Verma, Pratika Rawal and Smriti Mandhana, but the target was far too small to defend. Wahab Riaz Defends Squad Changes The defeat has also intensified the debate surrounding Pakistan’s decision to make wholesale changes to their Women’s Asia Cup squad. Former Pakistan captain Sana Mir had criticised the management for leaving out seven players. ‘Sana Mir has her own opinion. I have nothing to do with that opinion. We have made changes with the future in mind. The players who were playing before, they have played a lot of World Cups and Asia Cups but we weren’t getting the results.
Because the conditions really suit us,’ Riaz told reporters after the match against India, i still believe Pakistan is the best side in this Asia Cup to lift the trophy. Pakistan slipped from 27 without loss to 35 for six as the innings rapidly unravelled.
Riaz rejected that criticism and said the selection decisions were made with the team’s longer term development in mind. So it was time to go with new faces and bring new girls into the mix to build the team for the upcoming tournaments,’ Riaz said.
Earlier reporting noted: India made the Pakistan batting line-up look completely helpless at the Dubai International Stadium on Saturday night, with young spinners Shree Charani and Prema Rawat doing most of the damage. Pakistan’s semi-final hopes are actually not in danger despite the heavy loss to India. Fatima Sana’s side remains second in Group A with one win and one defeat from two games, while India have already secured their semi-final berth after winning all three of their matches. Yet, despite one of Pakistan’s most emphatic defeats in the format, Riaz insisted that the conditions could still work in his team’s favour.
As a result, even a heavy Pakistan defeat would not be enough for Hong Kong to overtake them on the table, meaning Pakistan would still finish second and advance to the semi-finals. Pakistan will play Hong Kong, China in their final group fixture on September 7, but even a defeat would not knock them out. Hong Kong have lost both their games and currently have a net run rate of -3.575, compared to Pakistan’s -0.569.
