Sports

Triumphant Pakistan cricket team returns home after West Indies tour

Pakistan cricket team won T20I series 1-0 and levelled Test series 1-1 against West Indies

By Web Desk
August 27, 2021
Muhammad Abbas and Azhar Ali stay in London to play county cricket — File
Muhammad Abbas and Azhar Ali stay in London to play county cricket — File

LAHORE: The Pakistan cricket team returned to Lahore from Jamaica Friday after winning the T20I series and levelling the two-match test series against West Indies.

Captain Babar Azam, Abid Ali, Imran Butt, Fawad Alam, Muhammad Rizwan and Shaheen Shah Afridi along with other members of team management landed at the Allama Iqbal International Airport on Friday morning.

Meanwhile, Naseem Shah and Yasir Shah travelled to Antigua to participate in the Caribbean Premier League. And Muhammad Abbas and Azhar Ali did not return home as both the players stayed in London to play county cricket.

Earlier this week, Pakistan’s coach Misbah-ul-Haq tested Covid-19 positive’ therefore the coach will complete his 10-day quarantine period in Jamaica and then depart return back.

During the tour top West Indies, the Pakistani cricket team became the only team that twice won a test match after an extremely poor start by losing three wickets for only two runs or less in the first innings of the match.

The Pakistan cricket team has so far played 20 series with the West Indies since 2000.

During the series Shaheen Shah Afridi got his career-best figure of 10 for 94, trailing Muhammed Asif who got 11 for 71 against Sri Lanka in Kandy in 2006.

Bowlers fare well in West Indies series

Shaheen Shah Afridi became the fourth-youngest pacer to grab a ten-wicket haul in a Test. In this record, he trails Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Mohammad Zahid.

Abbas and Hasan Ali also became the other Pakistani bowlers who took ten wickets in a Test during this period.

Shaheen Afridi's 18 wickets in the two Tests also made him prominent with the joint second-most wicket-taker in a two-match Test series, after Saqlain Mushtaq and Mushtaq Ahmed.

Pakistani pacers claimed 66 wickets in the Test series - a second-highest for a two-Test series. However, spinners could take only four wickets.

In the second Test, Pakistan maintained a 6.43 run rate which is the third-highest run rate for any Test team.