After losing in the first final of the T20 World Cup in 2007, Pakistan got their hands on the trophy two years later at Lord’s but that is the last time the country has been to the title showdown in this competition, a record they will be looking to end here. There is a feeling that they are at home in the conditions having had the UAE as their base for so much of the last two decades. That will give them plenty of confidence.
Profile
Captain: Babar Azam
Previous Best: Winners 2009
Key Players: Babar Azam & Shaheen Afridi
Best Odds: 7/1 General
Fixtures (Super 12 Group 2)
Oct 24 vs India at Dubai
Oct 26 vs New Zealand at Sharjah
Oct 29 vs Afghanistan at Dubai
Nov 2 vs Namibia at Abu Dhabi
Nov 7 vs Scotland at Sharjah
Squad
Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Imad Wasim, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shoaib Malik.
Travelling Reserves: Khushdil Shah, Shahnawaz Dahani, Usman Qadir.
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Team Guide
Pakistan will be quietly confident about their chances in this tournament. There isn’t an inch of the three venues being used that they won’t know well having played so much cricket in this part of the world and the pitches getting tired and abrasive will only assist them in getting reverse swing. When you add in that Pakistan are in the weaker of the two groups as well then there is certainly a case for them going far in this event.
The key to that happening will be whether they can put up enough sizeable scores with the bat for their bowlers to work with. When you look down their batting order you would think that would be a formality but it never quite works out like that where this Pakistan team are concerned. If they do go well with the bat they look like being a right handful with the ball in these conditions so they certainly know what they need to do.
Betting
Babar Azam is all the rage in the Top Pakistan Batter market and you can understand that. He is a class act who can score runs on any pitch and in any conditions but he is carrying the hopes of a nation on his shoulders with the burden of the captaincy and I wonder if that might be a little too much for him. Mohammad Hafeez would be another contender but he is surely going to bat too low down the order to have the desired impact.
The one I like is Babar’s opening partner Mohammad Rizwan, who has been in insane form in this format over the last 10 months. He has had 14 T20I innings in 2021 and on seven of those he has passed 50 and there is a ton on top of that. If that isn’t enough he also has scores of 43 and 46 so he has been a run machine at the top of the order for Pakistan. I see no reason why that won’t continue here when you consider three of the lesser ranked sides in the competition are in the Pakistan group. At 3/1 he looks a better alternative to his captain.
Tips
Back M.Rizwan Top Pakistan Tournament Batter for a 2/10 stake at 4.00 with Betway
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