Tag: AUSvPAK

  • Australia prioritises Pakistan tour over IPL, players to miss a few matches

    Australia prioritises Pakistan tour over IPL, players to miss a few matches

    The Australian team will prioritise their national duty and several prominent players from Australia will miss out the first few matches of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 action due to the series against Pakistan.

    Read More – Australia announces full-strength squad for Pakistan tour

    Australian skipper Pat Cummins, Steve Smith, David Warner and others are all included in the auction. Cricket Australia (CA) laid down a strong ruling that their players were not allowed to abandon international duty for the IPL.

    Earlier, George Bailey, Australia’s chairman of selectors had said that IPL is a good enough “development opportunity” but CA would not release players when Australia was playing.

    “We do see the IPL as a really good development opportunity when it fits, but there’s obviously a huge amount of cricket with a series (in Sri Lanka) planned for immediately-post the IPL as well.”

    He later reiterated and passed a clear ruling on the matter.

    “So, it will be about working with the individuals to ensure they’re getting the preparation they need, but we certainly won’t be releasing players to the IPL while Australia are playing.”

    The Test leg of Australia’s tour of Pakistan, featuring three matches, is scheduled to end on March 25. Australia will then play a three-match ODI series in Rawalpindi, which will also host the only T20I on April 5. In an e-mail to the franchises on Wednesday, the IPL said Cricket Australia had permitted players who were part of both the Test and white-ball leg in Pakistan, to travel from April 6.

    This is a clear statement to IPL and to world cricket that Australia has refused to surrender to BCCI’s foothold in the cricketing world.

    The series is set to kickoff with the first Test match to be played on March 4 in Rawalpindi.

  • Australia’s white-ball captain Aaron Finch ‘can’t wait’ to tour Pakistan

    Australia’s white-ball captain Aaron Finch ‘can’t wait’ to tour Pakistan

    Australian captain Aaron Finch has said that he cannot wait to go to Pakistan for the white-ball leg, consisting of three ODIs and one T20I.

    “As a player, I can’t wait to go to Pakistan for the white-ball leg,” said Finch, according to Sportstar.

    The right-handed batter said that Pakistan has not been able to play cricket at home for a long time.

    “That’s one part of the world that’s been deprived of (international) cricket for a long time now, and world cricket’s in a much better place when Pakistan’s thriving as a cricket nation,” he added.

    Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and Cricket Australia (CA) on Friday announced the revised schedule of the Australia men’s cricket team’s tour of Pakistan in 2022.

    The Australian cricket team will arrive in Pakistan in the last week to play three Tests, three ODIs, and one T20I at three different venues Rawalpindi, Karachi, and Lahore.

    It will be Australia’s first tour of Pakistan after 24 long years. The Aussies’ last tour of Pakistan was in 1998 when they won the three-match Test series by 1-0 as two matches were drawn.

  • ‘Not happy’: Shahid Afridi schools Shaheen for bad bowling in semi-final

    ‘Not happy’: Shahid Afridi schools Shaheen for bad bowling in semi-final

    Former Pakistan captain and T20 World Cup winner, Shahid Afridi is upset by the dismal performance of Shaheen Shah Afridi, as the young pacer conceded three back to back sixes off Matthew Wade, who guided Australia to their first T20 World Cup Final on Thursday.

    Read More – ‘No one should point fingers, I back everyone’: Babar Azam talks to team after losing semi-final

    The former all-rounder asserted that even if Hassan Ali dropped an important catch, it doesn’t mean that Afridi should have lost hope.

    “I am not happy with Shaheen in one area. Okay, so Hassan Ali dropped a catch but that does not mean you will bowl badly and get hit for three successive sixes,” Shahid Afridi said on Samaa TV.

    “Shaheen has so much pace and he should have used it sensibly. Even if the catch was dropped. He should have used his head and tried to bowl outside off stump fast Yorkers with his pace. He is not that sort of bowler to be hit like that,” the former Pakistan captain said.

    Shaheen set the World Cup on fire when he got rid of top players like Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul with a new ball in Pakistan’s big match against India. In the semi-final against Australia, he sent back the Australian captain Aaron Finch in the first over.

    Cracking the three balls for sixes, the Australian keeper-batter sealed their spot in the final.

    Read More – Hayden lauds ‘warrior’ Rizwan, who was in hospital the night before Pak-Aus match

    Australia will be facing New Zealand in Final of the T20 World Cup 2021 on Sunday at Dubai International Stadium.

  • ‘No one should point fingers, I back everyone’: Babar Azam talks to team after losing semi-final

    ‘No one should point fingers, I back everyone’: Babar Azam talks to team after losing semi-final

    Pakistan cricket team captain Babar Azam has given a pep-talk to the team in the dressing-room after they lost the semi-final to Australia in Dubai on Thursday. The young captain stressed it’s important to not point fingers at each other and that the entire team failed to play up to its potential in the heartbreaking loss on Thursday.

    Read More – Hayden lauds ‘warrior’ Rizwan, who was in hospital the night before Pak-Aus match

    Talking about unity in the team, Babar said: “Everybody is sad, everybody is feeling the pain. We need to figure out where we went wrong and where we have to improve. No one will tell us this, we all know this. But we have to learn from this.”

    “We have created a unit at the World Cup and this shouldn’t break. There should be no finger-pointing. We should not go into saying ‘he did this, he did this and all that’. We, as a team, did not play well. No one should point fingers at any other person.”

    “We lost, it’s okay but we have to learn from this. We will. In the times to come, we shouldn’t make the same mistakes,” added the captain.

    “I am telling you again, we shouldn’t let the unit break. We have worked hard to create this. One loss shouldn’t force anyone to leave this unit. As a captain, I am backing everyone. We have created a very good atmosphere in the dressing room, one that feels like family. Everyone has put in the effort. Every match, every player has taken up responsibility,” said Babar.

    “We will put in the effort, that is in our hands but the result is not. I know everyone is sad. But this will last for a short while. We will start thinking about where we went wrong and where we should have improved. Don’t get bogged down. Try lifting each other. Learn, there is a bit of sadness but we have to overcome that,” Babar concluded.

    Pakistan posted 176 runs for the loss of 4 wickets on the board in their quota of 20 overs, thanks to fifties from Mohammad Rizwan and Fakhar Zaman. However, defending a total in Dubai proved difficult yet again as Pakistan paid the price for some ordinary effort with the ball and on the field.

    Australia will face New Zealand in the final of the T20 World Cup in Dubai on Sunday

  • Australian Cricket team to tour Pakistan in March-April 2022

    Australian Cricket team to tour Pakistan in March-April 2022

    The Australian cricket team will be visiting Pakistan next year in March and April for three Test matches, Three ODIs and one T20I, announced the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Monday.

    Read More – New Zealand cancels Pak series due to ‘security concerns’ despite PM Khan’s call to NZ PM

    According to the details, the first Test match of the series will start on March 3 in Karachi. The second Test will be played in Rawalpindi from March 12 to 16 and the third in Lahore from March 21 to 25.

    Meanwhile, all four white-ball matches of the series will be played in Lahore. These matches will be played from March 29 to April 5.

    Read More – ‘Decision of England board is cowardly, was made out of fear of the players and India’: British author

    Earlier, the PCB Twitter account had tweeted that they will be making a big announcement shortly.

    Australia has not played in Pakistan since 1998.

    However, team Pakistan is set to face Australia in the semi-finals of ongoing T20 World Cup 2021 on (Thursday) November 11.