Pak squash team to leave for South Korea tomorrow

KARACHI: Pakistan squash team is leaving on Friday (tomorrow) to participate in the 21st Asian Team Squash Championships that is scheduled in Cheongju, South Korea, from October 31 to November 4.

The team’s players are Noor Zaman, Ahsan Ayaz, Farhan Mehboob, and Hamza Khan. Pakistan stood runners-up in the last edition of the championship in 2019.

This time Pakistan are seeded 5th and have been placed in Pool A along with top seeds India, fourth seeds Qatar, eighth seeds Kuwait, ninth seeds South Korea, and 12th seeds Chinese Taipei.

“This is a broken team and has very little chances of even reaching the last eight or four stage,” said a source while talking to ‘The News’.

The source added that the team could perform better if its young players, Noor Zaman and Hamza, showed their best.

According to the draws, Pakistan will face South Korea and Chinese Taipei on Oct 31, India and Kuwait on Nov 1, and Qatar on Nov 2.

“We have lost to South Korea in the past. So this championship is quite hard for Pakistan this time. We can only hope for some good results,” said the source.

The source added that the team faced a setback when a key member of the team, Nasir Iqbal, got injured.