Pakistan women eye winning start to busy season in Ireland T20s

DUBLIN: Pakistan captain Fatima Sana (L) and her Ireland counterpart Gaby Lewis pose with the T20I series trophy at the Clontarf Cricket Club on Tuesday.—courtesy PCB

DUBLIN: Pakistan women will look to kickstart a packed international calendar — featuring two white-ball World Cups — with a winning performance when they take on Ireland in the opening fixture of a three-match T20I series at the Clontarf Cricket Club Ground on Wednesday.

This will be the fifth bilateral T20I series between the two sides. The record so far stands even, with both Pakistan and Ireland having won two series each. However, the overall head-to-head is tilted heavily in Pakistan’s favour, with the visitors winning 15 of the 19 encounters since their first meeting in Dublin in 2009.

The series follows a productive month of preparation for Pakistan, who held a 17-day skills camp and a five-day pre-tour camp at the Hanif Mohammad High Performance Centre in Karachi before arriving in Dublin on August 3.

Pakistan captain Fatima Sana, speaking at a press conference on the eve of the series, sounded confident about her team’s preparation and ambitions.

“We underwent some extensive practice during our camps in Pakistan and we are looking forward to executing our plans in this series,” she said. “We played here in 2022 and we are well aware of the conditions. The whole Ireland team is a decent one — it’s hard to pick out one player.”

Pakistan last faced Ireland in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2023, where opener Muneeba Ali carved her name into history with the first T20I century by a Pakistan player. That innings helped Pakistan seal a 70-run victory in Cape Town.

While much of the squad remains the same from that campaign, there are a few notable changes. 20-year-old batter Eyman Fatima is the only uncapped player in the 15-member squad, while top-order batter Sadaf Shamas was ruled out with a quadriceps injury and replaced by Shawaal Zulfiqar.

Sadia Iqbal, the world’s top-ranked T20I bowler, will spearhead the bowling attack alongside fellow spinner Nashra Sandhu, with the pace battery expected to play a supporting role.

“We have our bases covered in both batting and bowling,” Fatima added. “Nashra and Sadia have been our main spinners for a long time and I’m hoping the pacers will support them well as they did in the recent World Cup qualifiers.”

The series presents a key opportunity for Pakistan to build momentum ahead of the global events later this year.

“We want to win here to continue our momentum from the past and carry it into this year’s World Cup,” said Fatima.

Ireland, meanwhile, enter the series high on confidence after a dominant showing against Zimbabwe women last month, where they swept both the T20I and ODI series at home.

All three matches of the series will begin at 4pm local time, with the second and third T20Is scheduled for August 8 and 10, respectively.

Squad: Fatima Sana (captain), Aliya Riaz, Diana Baig, Eyman Fatima, Gull Feroza, Muneeba Ali, Najiha Alvi (wicket-keeper), Nashra Sandhu, Natalia Parvaiz, Rameen Shamim, Sadia Iqbal, Sidra Amin, Shawaal Zulfiqar, Tuba Hassan, Waheeda Akhtar.

Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2025

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