Babar Azam, the captain of Pakistan is positive about his team’s chance in the forthcoming 2020 world cup games despite being runners-up and third place finishers in the two previous editions.
After a chaotic preparation for the tournament, Azam took over from Shaheen Shah Afridi as captain just three months before commencement.
Their recent form doesn’t inspire confidence. They lost to a weaker new Zealand team at home in a T20 series then lost again in Ireland opening game before coming back to win by 2-1. This unpredictability makes them a dark horse among the Twenty-teams tournament that will kick off on June 1st (2020) at United States.
“This time we reach semi-finals then final, so this time it is our turn to win trophy”, He stated before heading to Ireland for pre-game warmups.
Pakistan are drawn in Group A alongside India who are also co-hosting as well as USA, Canada and Ireland. To earn spots into the Super Eights with West Indies they must finish top-two within their group.
However a defeat to India on June 9th in New York could leave their last group match against Ireland as “must-win” game.
Nonetheless, no matter what obstacles come along his way Azam always trusts his team’s ability to overcome them. A lot has changed within Pakistan cricket including several key appointments such as; hiring of Gary Kirsten as white-ball coach, chairman and selection committee. The fast bowlers returned with Muhammad Amir and Imad Wasim (spinner) retiring which further strengthened their attack.
But still Pakistan’s batting style along with lack of consistency are worrying issues. Their batting heavily relies on opening partnership between Rizwan and Azam; yet they have failed many times even reaching up to not more than 200 runs T20I innings together only once in this format
This includes Saim Ayoub who is left-handed alongside an effective middle order featuring Farhad Zaman, Usman Khan Azam Khan and Iftikhar Ahmed who can be a handy pack but must perform consistently for Pakistan if “we are to come back with the trophy”.
