Dar retains Pakistan captaincy; Aroob, Omaima return for Women’s Asia Cup

Nida Dar has survived a dip in personal form as well as team results to retain the captaincy of Pakistan for the Women’s Asia Cup 2024. There are notable omissions and additions to the team that went winless on their T20I and ODI tour of England last month, with batters Ayesha Zafar and Sadaf Shamas notable absentees.

The 15-member squad for the tournament, which will be held in Dambulla in Sri Lanka, from July 19 to July 28, also sees Natalia Pervaiz, Rameen Shamim, Umm-e-Hani and Waheeda Akhtar left out, while four players who weren’t part of any international cricket in 2024 get call-ups. Batting allrounder Iram Javed, who hasn’t played T20I cricket since Pakistan’s tour of Bangladesh last year is back in the squad, while Omaima Sohail and Syeda Aroob Shah come back for the first time since Pakistan’s tours against New Zealand and South Africa respectively last year. Tasmia Rubab, the 22-year-old left-arm fast bowler, considered a rising star within Pakistan’s bowling ranks, comes into the international fold for the first time.

The large number of changes to a women’s squad borders on unprecedented in Pakistan cricket, and could potentially represent a shake-up of the core of the women’s side going forward. Pakistan recently announced a new head coach for the tournament, with Mohammad Wasim given the reins, while Junaid Khan will serve as assistant coach and Abdur Rehman as spin-bowling coach. They have, however, not been given long-term roles, and are at present slated to serve for just the Asia Cup.

Pakistan have endured deteriorating results consistently for the last 18 months, with T20I series wins against South Africa at home and New Zealand away aberrations to the larger trend. The recent home series against West Indies saw the visitors win seven of the eight games, while Pakistan went winless across formats in England in May.

In late 2022, former PCB chairman Ramiz Raja originally promised that a women’s T20 league would be held in Pakistan, but the administrative flux that followed saw him removed two months later; three different men as served as chair since. Actual progress, consequently, has stalled, as three exhibition matches held concurrently with the PSL in 2023 were not followed up by any further games this year. Despite multiple players of the women’s side repeatedly calling for a women’s T20 league, promises to hold such an event remain decidedly vague.