Pakistan to begin Asia Cup campaign on Sept 1

All the fixtures in the 15-match tournament will take place at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium (DICS) and will begin at 7.30pm Pakistan time. Pakistan, who are placed in Group A, are set to face India on 5 September in their second match and will play Hong Kong, China on 7 August.

Defending champions Sri Lanka are placed in Group B with Bangladesh, Indonesia and United Arab Emirates. The semi-finals of the eight-team tournament will be played on 10 and 11 September, respectively with the final slated for 13 September.

Pakistan squad reached United Arab Emirates on 26 August after preparing for the tournament with a 10-day training camp at the National Cricket Academy. In Pakistan’s squad, top-order batter Sadaf Shamas replaced wicketkeeper-batter Najiha Alvi, who was ruled out of the tournament after sustaining an injury in her left knee.

Pakistan women played three T20Is at the DICS during the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024. At the Women’s Asia Cup, Pakistan’s best results have been in 2012 and 2016 when they finished runners-up in consecutive editions of the tournament.

In 2022 and 2024 editions, Pakistan’s campaign ended at the semi-finals stage. The current edition of the tournament will be the 10th iteration and sixth in T20 format after the first four tournaments in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2008 were players in One-Day format.

Pakistan women’s captain Fatima Sana in her pre-departure media talk said, “We played matches against boys in our pre-tournament camp and that also helped us create pressure situations on the team, which is really helpful. Our aim to adopt the conditions as soon as possible in the tournament.

“We created such scenarios that helped our players deal with pressure situations. I’ll try to take the challenge of this tournament day-by-day and no one game is more important in the event.

We want to win every single game and produce positive results.”Pakistan squad:Fatima Sana (captain), Ayesha Zafar, Eman Naseer, Eyman Fatima, Gull Feroza, Momina Riasat, Muneeba Ali Siddiqui (wk), Nashra Sundhu, Sadaf Shamas, Sadia Iqbal, Saira Jabeen, Shawaal Zulfiqar, Tuba Hassan, Umm-e-Hani, Waheeda Akhtar. Reserves – Tasmia Rubab, Humna Bilal, Maham Anees.

Support Staff: Wahab Riaz (coach/mentor), Ayesha Ashar (team manager), Abdur Rehman (spin bowling coach), Umaid Asif (fast bowling coach), Abdul Majeed (fielding coach), Imran Farhat (batting coach), Waleed Ahmed (performance analyst), Moeen (strength & conditioning coach), Dur Samand (Physiotherapist) and Raza Rashid Kitchlew (media manager)