Daily Times

LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Monday announced a 26-member squad for the women’s white-ball tour of the West Indies, from which the line-ups for the senior Pakistan women’s team and the A team will be selected. Experienced batter Javeria Khan continues to lead the senior side, while spinner Rameen Shamim and wicketkeeper-batter Sidra Nawaz will captain the A sides for the one-dayers and T20s respectively. The senior side will play West Indies in three T20Is and five ODIs, and the shadow side will play West Indies A in three one-day matches and three T20s. All 26 players will be available for selection for all 14 matches. The tour runs from June 30 to July 18. All matches will be played at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua. “The Caribbean tour presents a phenomenal opportunity to our core group of cricketers to showcase their performances and further cement places for the 2021-22 season, which promises to be an exciting one for women’s cricket,” Urooj Mumtaz, the chairperson of the national women’s selection committee, said. “These 26 players have been involved in all our high-performance camps over the past nine months and have put in the hard yards under the national coaching staff led by David Hemp. The group has prepared with high intensity and purpose.”

Mumtaz added that the limited-overs games for the A side would be an opportunity for the second string of players to stake a claim in the national side as exceptional performances would be rewarded by players getting bumped up to the senior side. “I am hopeful that there will be quality cricket on display as we aim to further improve our world standing and continue to push to become top contenders on the world stage,” she said. As part of the team’s preparation for the upcoming assignments, including the 50-over World Cup qualifiers in Sri Lanka in December, the same 26-member contingent had a 25-day preparatory camp in Multan from May 29, before moving to Karachi on June 9 when the temperatures soared in Multan.

The PCB said in a statement that the 26 players and support staff had arrived in Lahore on Monday morning and would take pre-departure Covid-19 tests in the afternoon. The touring party will leave for Antigua via London in the wee hours of June 23, and be tested twice in five days thereafter, and then serve a four-day quarantine (room isolation) before beginning training. Pakistan women have been out of action since their aborted tour of Zimbabwe in February where they won the first ODI before the remainder of the series was called off. Before that, the team had toured South Africa where they lost the ODI series 3-0 and won the third and final T20I to deny the hosts another series sweep.

Pakistan women’s squad: Javeria Khan, Rameen Shamim, Sidra Nawaz, Aliya Riaz, Aiman Anwar, Anam Amin, Ayesha Naseem, Ayesha Zafar, Diana Baig, Fatima Sana, Iram Javed, Jaweria Rauf, Kainat Imtiaz, Kaynat Hafeez, Maham Tariq, Muneeba Ali Siddiqui (wk), Nahida Khan, Najiha Alvi (wk), Nashra Sundhu, Natalia Parvaiz, Nida Dar, Omaima Sohail, Saba Nazir, Sadia Iqbal, Sidra Amin, Syeda Aroob Shah.