Fatima Sana Aims To Bring Fearless Approach To ICC Women’s T20 World Cup
Zeeshan Mehtab Published September 26, 2024 | 04:30 PM
ISLAMABAD, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Sep, 2024) Pakistan women's cricket team captain, Fatima Sana, aims to bring a different and fearless approach to the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup this year.
"In the past, we’ve often struggled in the powerplay, with early wickets falling, middle-order collapses, and a slow pace of runs leading to low totals. We've also found it difficult to chase targets above 120," she was quoted as saying by ICC.
She said, "we understand how crucial it is to have positive intent, especially in the powerplay, to set the tone and post competitive scores. If we look at the top teams, they all make the most of the first six overs, which helps them score big and chase high totals".
Sana said recently, we've started playing with more attacking intent, and some young players have shown exciting potential.
The game has evolved a lot since I made my debut in 2019. Scores are much higher now, batters play with more freedom, and as a team, we’re adapting to stay competitive.
This year, Gull Feroza has been in good form, with some strong innings in the Asia Cup. Muneeba Ali, at the top of the order, also performed well in the recent series against South Africa. Both are in good form and bring valuable experience, she said.
We’ve encouraged them to aim for a strike rate of over 100, a key metric that helps us post higher totals and compete with the best. In the middle order, we have experienced players like Nida Dar, Sidra Amin, and Aliya Riaz. I too, have been working hard to bring positive energy to the team through my batting.
When it comes to bowling, Sadia Iqbal has been phenomenal in the last year. She's currently ranked #3 in the ICC T20 rankings, and Nashra Sandhu is also in the top 10, she said.
She said Nida Dar is the leading wicket-taker in T20s, and we have two talented leg spinners, Syeda Arooba Shah, who captained Pakistan U19 at the T20 World Cup, and Tuba Hassan, who has been a key player since her debut.
Both of them bring a lot of energy in the field, and our strong spin department will be crucial in the Dubai conditions.
In the fast-bowling department, Diana Baig’s experience will be a great asset. I’ll do my best, as always, to contribute with both bat and ball, and we also have Tasmia Rubab, a left-arm seamer, which gives us good variety, she said.
Sana said this exciting mix of youth and experience has her really looking forward to seeing how it all comes together for Pakistan.
She said before our series against South Africa, we had a good fitness camp, and our performances in that series gave us a lot of positives and confidence to take into the World Cup.
"We put up our highest-ever T20I total of 181 runs in the second match, which showed that our new approach is starting to pay off. While we were disappointed with our Asia Cup loss to Sri Lanka, we are motivated to put that right when we face them in the first group game of the World Cup", she said.
Sana said Pakistan has won one match at each of the last six T20 World Cups. This time, we aim to win as many as possible and see where that takes us. We know we have a tough group, including reigning champions Australia, but we've beaten teams like India and New Zealand recently, and playing against top sides boosts our confidence, she said.
She said playing top teams requires giving your absolute best, and doing so brings out the best in you.
"We know we'll have strong support from back home during this World Cup. We had great crowds and public interest during the South Africa series in Multan, and we know the nation is behind us..We’re looking forward to a great T20 World Cup, insha'Allah," she said.
Related Topics
Recent Stories
Police get 4 days custody of PTI lawyer Mustafeen Kazmi
PTI lawyers granted interim bail in protest case
Ahsan Iqbal encourages youth towards scientific research
Senate Dy Chairman, BNP-M leader discuss overall political situation
19 criminals arrested; illegal weapons seized
SC constitutes bench on review petition regarding Double Taxation Treaty
NCA organises Open Mic event
PM to host All Parties Conference on Palestine issue on Oct 7
Special education institutions get two modern buses
Enabling environment being provided to youth for skill based training: Nasir Sha ..
Lahore High Court (LHC) summons LDA chief engineer
Police foil bid to smuggle narcotics from KP to Punjab
More Stories From Sports
-
Top EU court finds against FIFA in key transfer market ruling
2 hours ago -
Muchova stuns Sabalenka to set up Beijing semi with home hero Zheng
2 hours ago -
National fastest competition on Oct 8
3 hours ago -
S. Africa hammer W. Indies by 10 wickets in Women's T20 World Cup
3 hours ago -
Revenge for Medvedev, Tsitsipas at Shanghai Masters
3 hours ago -
Muchova stuns Sabalenka to set up Beijing semi-final with home hero Zheng
3 hours ago
-
Ben Stokes’ participation in first Test match against Pakistan hangs in doubts
4 hours ago -
Tennis world number one Swiatek splits with coach Wiktorowski
4 hours ago -
Cricket: South Africa v West Indies Women's T20 World Cup scores
4 hours ago -
Team confident ahead of test series against Pakistan: Zak Crawley
4 hours ago -
Faheem Ashraf to lead Pakistan in Hong Kong Cricket Sixes
4 hours ago -
Sirbaz becomes first Pakistani to summit all 14 peaks above 8000m
6 hours ago