Pakistan’s preparations for next month’s ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in Dubai and Sharjah have been less than ideal.
The Pakistan team has lost 11 of 15 T20Is since the start of this year, and a seismic shift in the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) saw the entire backroom staff change just three months before the all-important tournament. The 22-year-old was also named captain just over a month after the opening match.
Pakistan will be in the toughest group of the 10-team competition. Three of their opponents – Australia (top-seeded and defending champions), India (third) and New Zealand (fourth) – are in the top four of the International Cricket Council rankings, while Sri Lanka (sixth) are two places above them in the table.
Pakistan women have never made it past the group stage of the T20 World Cup and their performances this year have been abysmal, leaving fans with little hope.
ICC Women’s T20 World Cup is just around the corner. Eos talks to the head coach of the Pakistan women’s team to guess their chances in the event
Since his appointment as head coach of the women’s team, former Pakistan Test cricketer Muhammad Wasim has put in place concrete plans to rebuild his team. It gave Pakistan three of their four wins on the year in the last seven matches, the Asia Cup and three T20I series against South Africa.
“It’s a completely different challenge,” he tells Eos on the eve of the team’s departure to Dubai for the T20 World Cup. “The dynamics of women’s wardrobes are different and it’s very important to understand that.”
Wasim, who works in the women’s team for the first time, starts this job with solid coaching qualifications. He led the Northern team, made up mostly of young domestic cricketers, to the National T20 title in 2020 before taking them to back-to-back finals of the premier Quaid-i-Azam trophy. He also served as the head coach of the men’s national team.
Wasim has a plan to transform his new team into a modern women’s team. He shares it with Eos at a hotel in Lahore.
“The skills are there,” he says, “but what holds us back is our lack of physical fitness and ability to cope with pressure. We have been working on these two areas and you certainly saw their impact on our batting approach in the recent series against South Africa.
Pakistan posted their highest-ever T20I score (181) in the second of three T20Is against South Africa in Multan, with the team scoring as many as six sixes. Pakistan – in the current T20 World Cup series – are averaging just one six off 114 balls, a welcome change for a team that has struggled with heavy batting.
“We identified this as a major area for improvement,” Wasim says of Pakistan’s poor performance in border crossing.
One of Wasim’s assistants on the coaching staff is Hanif Malik. Both come from the most data-driven franchises, Pakistan Super League (PSL), Multan Sultans and Islamabad United respectively. When they analyzed the numbers together in the first camp, before the Asia Cup, they found that Pakistan was significantly behind other teams.
“The players had the ability to hit boundaries and sixes, but they held back,” says Wasim. “We have worked to change their mindset towards a positive brand of cricket.
“Now Muneeba Ali has started pushing boundaries more often. Gull Feroza showed off her powerful striking skills in patches. Sidra [Ameen]Aliya Riaz and Nida Dar have the ability to clear the ropes. Hanif worked immensely with the girls to hit hard. There will be a change in the way the ball is batted in the T20 World Cup.
During the last series of competitions in South Africa, players were astonished when they were discouraged from any physical training on their days off. A few weeks earlier, they had undergone a rigorous week-long fitness camp in Lahore. To the players’ surprise, they did not practice any skills in this camp.
These measures, Wasim argues, are consistent with effective workload management practices. “I can’t make these players fitter overnight, but I have started the process of achieving the desired fitness standards. We have developed appropriate workload management plans for the players – as every professional team does – with the help of our strength and conditioning coach and physiotherapist.
“During the fitness camp in Lahore, we demanded a lot from these girls. I wasn’t sure how they would react, but they reacted really well. The players now realize how important it is to improve their fitness and I see their commitment in the gym and in the dining room, which is nice to see.”
Our conversation turns to data – one of the most divisive topics in Pakistani cricket. “It’s different from men’s cricket,” Wasim says with a smile. “Female players are more open and understand the importance of data in cricket. They made my life easier.”
The Pakistan dugout now communicates favorable match-ups to his captain through numerical codes.
“Data is not rocket science,” says Wasim. “It includes historical events and provides information that you are not aware of… Initially, some players did not fully understand the idea of data in cricket. However, players started getting used to it during the Asian Cup.
“To tell you how much players have started to believe in the idea of using data in cricket, our spinner Sadia [Iqbal] She even asks us about favorable matchups for her in intra-team matches.”
Fatima Sana, Pakistan’s new captain, is also open to using data-driven strategies. “Fatima understands the demands of the modern game,” says Wasim. “She is young, has a lot of energy and inspires the team with her performances.”
Although Pakistan lost to South Africa 2-1 in the last series before the T20 World Cup, Wasim is happy with the preparations. Pakistan begins its tournament campaign on October 3 – the opening day of the T20 World Cup – with a match against Sri Lanka in Sharjah. However, all eyes will be on the competition on October 6 against India in Dubai.
“No matter the venue or the level at which it is played, there is always pressure when playing against India,” says Wasim. “We didn’t beat them in the Asia Cup and the result may seem rather one-sided. We looked better than India at certain phases but we couldn’t convert those opportunities and in the end they were too good for us.
“But considering the form our players are in, our preparations, the improvement in our batting and the fact that our spin attack is one of the best in the world, I am sure the result will be different this time. “
While Wasim continues to be called up series by series, there are indications that he will be retained for the long term. The Wasim-Fatima duo may yet herald a new era of women’s cricket in Pakistan.
“Everyone wants to win and I want to win too,” he says. “But you have to set realistic goals. In the short term, I want to instill belief that we can beat any team. In the medium term, we need to develop reserves and increase the pool of players through national competitions. In the long run, we need to increase our batting power and develop our fast bowlers. We don’t have enough fast bowlers in our line-up, which is a problem.
“We also need to introduce two-day cricket, either this season or next season, as it will definitely improve the skills of our players. We also need a women’s PSL. But at this stage we don’t have enough cricketers in our group. Whenever this happens, the PSL Women’s League will be a game-changer.
“I will continue to knock on doors for something like this to happen in Pakistan,” he says.
The author is a cricket journalist and former PCB media manager. X:@ahsannagi
Published in Dawn, EOS, September 29, 2024
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