Rameen Shamim named captain for ACC Women’s Emerging Teams Asia Cup

LAHORE: Off-spinner Rameen Shamim has been named the Pakistan women's team captain for the ACC Women’s Emerging Teams Asia Cup 2019, which will be held in Colombo from October 22 to 27.

Rameen played four T20Is on the recent tour to South Africa and inspired PCB Blasters to National Triangular One-Day Women’s Cricket Championship title in Lahore last month.

Pakistan will open their campaign on October 22 when they take on Sri Lanka, while they meet Bangladesh the following day before taking on India on October 25. The top two sides will contest the October 27 final.

Apart from Rameen, other international players in the side are 17-year-old Fatima Sana Khan, who made her debut in South Africa, Javeria Rauf, Maham Tariq, Nashra Sandhu and Muneeba Ali.

While performances in the National Triangular One-Day Women’s Cricket Championship have earned these girls a trip to Colombo, their decent outings against the Asian rivals will edge them closer to a call-up for the Pakistan national team for the series against Bangladesh to be played in Lahore from October 26 to November 4.

Following the Bangladesh series, Pakistan have to feature in the final two rounds of the ICC Women’s Championship before they fly off to Australia to participate in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020 from February 21 to March 8.

To prepare the side for the Colombo tournament, a training camp will be set-up at the High Performance Centre in Multan from October 5.

Pakistan squad: Rameen Shamim (captain), Ayesha Naseem, Fatima Sana Khan, Hafsa Khalid, Huraina Sajid, Javeria Rauf, Kainat Hafeez, Maham Tariq, Muneeba Ali, Najiha Alvi, Nashra Sandhu, Noren Yaqoob, Syeda Aroob Shah, Tuba Hassan, Waheeda Akhter.

Reserves: Ayesha Naz, Natalia Parvaiz, Soha Fatima and Syed Khadija Chishti

Pakistan’s schedule:

Tues, Oct 22 – Pakistan v Sri Lanka

Wed, Oct 23 – Pakistan v Bangladesh

Fri, Oct 25 – Pakistan v India

Sun, Oct 27 – Final