AUSTRALIA SERIES: Pakistan U16 team leaves for Dubai with high hopes

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Under-16 cricket team left for Dubai from Lahore Sunday night to take on Australia Under-16 in a series of five 50-over-a-side matches and one Twenty20 fixture at the ICC Academy.

The series will start with the first 50-over match on January 9 and culminate with the T20 game on January 20.

This is Australia’s return visit after Pakistan had toured Melbourne in April 2018. Australia had clinched the five-match series 3-2, while Pakistan had won the one-off T20 game by seven wickets.

The Pakistan side will be led by Umer Eman, the Lahore-born left-handed batsman and leg-spinner, who, along with Aaliyan Mehmood, Rizwan Mehmood, Samir Saqib, had also toured Australia last year.

Reflecting on his visit to Australia last year, Umer said: “When I played in Australia last year, I made a few mistakes but since then, I have been working extremely hard to overcome these. I am sure this series will also help me in improving my game.

“International cricket at this age provides great opportunities of improvement for all of us and my goal is to work on my game all the time.”

Apart from playing some solid and hard cricket in Dubai, Umer is aiming to making some friends.

“In Dubai, we will come across some of the players who were part of the last series Down Under. This presents us with an opportunity of knowing the Australian players better and making some friends.

“Cricket is important but even more important is to become a good human and have a friendly relationship with our rivals.”

Meanwhile, Umer’s squad includes Fata’s fast bowler Farhad Khan, who at 13 years and 293 days, is the youngest member of the side.

The squad includes a good balance of batsmen, all-rounders and bowlers who are all eager to give a good account of their talent against Australia.

Batsmen like Mohammad Shehzad, Haseebullah, Rizwan Mehmood and Samir Saqib form the batting core.

Shehzad had a good time representing Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the PCB U16 Pentangular Tournament 2018-19. The right-hander scored 309 runs in his five tournament innings, including one century and two half-centuries. Shehzad averaged 103 runs per innings in the event.

Left-handed Haseebullah, who represented Balochistan in the same event, scored 215 runs at 71.67 with one century and one half-century.

Rizwan and Samir topped the batting charts in the PCB-Pepsi Stars U16 One-Day Tournament 2018-19. In his seven tournament innings, Rizwan, representing Hyderabad, amassed 355 runs with the help of three half-centuries. His top score was 92 while he averaged 88.75.

Right-handed Samir scored 259 runs at an average of 51.80 in his seven tournament innings for Faisalabad with two half-centuries with a best of 74.

The squad also includes some promising spin bowlers who are relishing the prospect of bowling on the ICC Academy pitches that often help the slow bowlers. The trio of Faisal Akram, Aaliyan Mehmood and Kashif Ali have all bowled well in the domestic season.

Pakistan U16 squad: Umer Eman (captain), Aaliyan Mehmood, Ahmed Khan, Ali Asfand, Ali Hassan, Aseer Mughal, Ayaz Shah, Faisal Akram, Farhad Khan, Haseebullah Khan, Kashif Ali (vice-captain), Mohammad Shehzad, Rizwan Mahmood, Sameer Saqib and Zubair Shinwari (wicketkeeper).