Tag: Mohammad Wasim

LAHORE: Pakistan women team head coach Mohammad Wasim expressed confidence on his side ahead of the ICC World Cup 2025 co-hosted by Sri Lanka and India.

The ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025 is scheduled to take place from 30 September to 2 November.

Ahead of the marquee event, Wasim remained confident despite Pakistan’s 2-1 loss to South Africa in the three-match ODI series concluded today.

“We have full confidence in our batters, and after today’s performance, the bowlers will also take a lot of confidence heading into the World Cup,” he told reporters.

“In the first two matches, the wickets were spin-friendly, similar to conditions in Sri Lanka. Ideally, it would have been good to prepare accordingly, but the positive side is that we will play at one venue, which gave us a bit of a home advantage,” he added.

He said that the ODI format suits the Pakistan women’s team and emphasized the outcome of the series, highlighting key areas for improvement.

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“As I’ve said before, this format is best suited to our team, and you could see that in the qualifiers. Small margins make the difference.

That’s an area we need to improve—finishing close matches and holding our nerve in crunch situations. Hopefully, before the World Cup, we’ll get opportunities to sharpen that aspect, especially against varied opposition, ” Mohammad Wasim continued.

Mohammad Wasim talked about mental strength and praised Sidra Amin, who was outstanding with the bat against South Africa, scoring 293 runs in three matches with the help of two centuries and a half-century.

“We have batting, bowling, and fielding coaches, but mental strength is also very important. If needed, we will definitely consider bringing in experts to help players in that area.”

“Sidra Amin’s two centuries and a fifty show the kind of performances our players are capable of. We are heading in the right direction as a team,” he concluded.

For context, Pakistan will begin its campaign against Bangladesh on October 2, and will play all its games at R. Premadasa ICS, Colombo, at 3pm local time.

Pakistan team fixtures in ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025

• 2 October – vs Bangladesh
• 5 October – vs India
• 8 October – vs Australia
• 15 October – vs England
• 18 October – vs New Zealand
• 21 October – vs South Africa
• 24 October – vs Sri Lanka

READ: Six-star Sandhu seals consolatory win for Pakistan over South Africa

Former Pakistan batter Mohammad Wasim has recently opened up about his tensions with white-ball captain Babar Azam during his tenure as the chief selector.

During an interview with a local sports platform, Mohammad Wasim labelled Babar Azam as “very stubborn” for his resistance to the selection committee’s decisions.

“It was painful to make him understand the advantages of changes. He was very stubborn, and I overstepped my limitations to get him on board with certain calls. He was not ready to accept changes,” Wasim revealed.

The former opening batter also highlighted the issues of all-rounder Imad Wasim, who according to Wasim hid his knee injury from the management.

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“Imad has a knee injury, but he has been hiding it for years. We always speak about Azam Khan’s fitness levels, but Imad is also suffering from the same problem,” he added.

“He was dropped from the side for that same reason, and I also dropped him during my tenure so that he could work on his fitness.”

Mohammad Wasim made a shocking revelation, indicating that there is a specific group of players whose negative impact on the national team is similar to that of cancer, and is harming the team’s ability to succeed.

“I will not take names, but four coaches said that a group of players is cancer to the team. If they are part of the squad, Pakistan can’t win. I tried to remove them from the team, but the team management recalled them,” he concluded.

READ: Gus Atkinson stars as England wrap up Sri Lanka series win

Former chief selector Muhammad Wasim and former pacer Junaid Khan were named in Pakistan women’s cricket team’s coaching staff for the ACC Women’s Asia Cup 2024.

A four-day training camp of the Pakistan women’s cricket team for next month’s ACC Women’s T20 Asia Cup 2024 started here at the Hanif Mohammad High-Performance Centre in Karachi on Wednesday morning.

Twenty-eight (28) cricketers have been invited to the camp by the women’s national selection committee, which will be onsite to assess and evaluate players’ performances before announcing the squad for the Dambulla, Sri Lanka.

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Meanwhile, the PCB has confirmed the team management for the ACC Women’s Asia Cup 2024. Muhammad Wasim will be the head coach, while former Test bowlers Abdur Rehman and Junaid Khan will be the spin bowling and assistant coaches, respectively.

The eight-team ACC Women’s T20 Asia Cup will be played in Dambulla, Sri Lanka from 19 to 28 July. In the T20I tournament, Pakistan are placed in Group ‘A’ along with India, Nepal and UAE.

Pakistan will take on arch-rivals India on the opening day of the tournament, while matches against Nepal and UAE will be played on 21 and 23 July, respectively.

Players participating in four-day camp:

Aliya Riaz, Anoosha Nasir, Ayesha Zafar, Diana Baig, Dua Majid, Eyman Fatima, Fatima Sana, Gull Feroza, Humna Bilal, Iram Javed, Maham Manzoor, Muneeba Ali, Najiha Alvi, Nashra Sundhu, Natalia Parvaiz, Nida Dar, Omaima Sohail, Quratulain, Rameen Shamim, Sadaf Shamas, Sadia Iqbal, Sidra Amin, Syeda Aroob Shah, Tasmia Rubab, Tuba Hassan, Yusra Amir, Umm-e-Hani and Waheeda Akhtar

Player Support Personnel for the ACC Women’s Asia Cup 2024 – Hina Munawar (manager), Muhammad Wasim (head coach), Abdur Rehman (spin bowling coach), Junaid Khan (assistant coach), Hanif Malik (fielding coach), Rabia Siddiq (physiotherapist), strength and conditioning coach (tbc) and Waleed Ahmed (analyst).

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KARACHI: Pakistan Men’s Cricket Team Chief Selector Mohammad Wasim opened up for the first time on fast bowling all-rounder Faheem Ashraf’s exclusion from the recently announced Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Central Contracts 2022-23.

Fast bowling all-rounder Faheem, who is considered an integral part of Pakistan’s red-ball side and a consistent member in the squads of the team’s recent fixtures, remained unable to find himself in the list of players named in the recently-revealed central contracts.

In response to the host’s question about Faheem’s exclusion from the PCB Central Contracts on ARY News’ Sports Room (Eid Special), Wasim asserted that the all-rounder was not selected in the contract due to his below-par performance over the previous 12-month period, however, claimed that he is still part of the team’s future plans.

“Playing for the team does not guarantee a player’s inclusion in the central contracts. The criteria are straightforward, and they include performance over the previous 12 months, our plans for the next 12 months, and the role in the team, as well as the automatic selection,” Wasim responded.

“It further includes some other factors like commitment, fitness, and the extent of participation in the domestic circuit,” he maintained.

The chief selector then clarified that Faheem’s exclusion from the central contracts does not rule him out of the team’s future plans.

“Nobody said that Faheem isn’t a part of our future plans. The biggest proof of this is that he is accompanying the team on their tour to Sri Lanka,” Wasim stated.

“It is important to note that it is not the case that we will never choose a player who is not a part of the central contracts; rather, this is a common practice all over the world. Many players who are not covered by the contracts represent their teams,” he stressed.

On being asked about left-handed opener Imam-ul-Haq, who was awarded the Category B in white-ball cricket despite being ranked second in the latest ICC ODI batting rankings, Wasim claimed that the policy does not permit double promotion.

“No doubt, Imam’s performance has been improved a lot. He was in Category C in the last year’s contracts, so he got promoted. He made runs in domestic cricket and got introduced in the red-ball side, and performed well so he did get promoted,” Wasim stated.

“Double promotion, however, is not the criteria, which means a player can not be promoted by two categories. Then again I would say how many match-winning performances a player has produced is the key,” he concluded.

READ: Netizens irked over Faheem’s exclusion from PCB Central Contracts

LAHORE: Skipper Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, and Shaheen Afridi have been offered category A in both red and white-ball contracts as Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has announced central contracts for 33 players for the year 2022-23.

Pakistan national team Chief selector Muhammad Wasim, speaking at a scheduled press conference held here today to announce the central contract for players, stated that the contracts have been offered to players on the basis of their fitness and last year’s performance.

According to details, 10 players have received red-ball contracts, while 11 players have received white-ball contracts, along with Imam-ul-Haq, Hassan Ali, Babar, Rizwan, and Shaheen, who have been offered both contracts.

Meanwhile, seven high-performing domestic players have also been offered central contracts under the emerging category.

MEN’S CENTRAL CONTRACT LIST 2022-23 

Red and White-ball Contracts (5):

Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, Shaheen Shah Afridi (all Category A), Hasan Ali (red-ball Category B, white-ball Category C), and Imam-ul-Haq (red-ball Category C, white-ball Category B)

Red ball Contracts (10):

Category A – Azhar Ali

Category B – Fawad Alam

Category C – Abdullah Shafique, Naseem Shah, and Nauman Ali

Category D – Abid Ali, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Saud Shakeel, Shan Masood, and Yasir Shah

White-ball Contracts (11):

Category A – Fakhar Zaman and Shadab Khan

Category B – Haris Rauf

Category C – Mohammad Nawaz

Category D – Asif Ali, Haider Ali, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Shahnawaz Dahani, Usman Qadir and Zahid Mehmood

Emerging Contracts (7):

Ali Usman (Southern Punjab), Haseebullah (Balochistan), Kamran Ghulam (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Mohammad Haris (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Mohammad Huraira (Northern), Qasim Akram (Central Punjab) and Salman Ali Agha (Southern Punjab).

READ: Shaheen rises to third spot in the latest ICC ODI Bowling Rankings

KARACHI: Pakistan team’s chief selector, Mohammad Wasim said he is open to constructive criticism otherwise he has a mute option on social media.

Speaking exclusively to A Sports HD on the sidelines of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy final here at National Stadium, Wasim said there is no question on his selection on the basis of social media influence.

“I am open to criticism which is constructive and I try to learn from it,” Wasim shared. “I don’t use social media too much. But, I have heard people saying that my selection is often influenced by social media opinions. That is not true, you are talking about the Pakistan team’s selection which is not a joke,” the chief selector added.

The former cricketer said he often uses the mute button which is very useful on Twitter. “Criticism is good but only constructive. Otherwise, I have a very good option of a mute button, especially on Twitter,” he continued.

While talking about next year’s T20 World Cup plan, Wasim said the team is well-set, a few changes according to the need will be made prior to the tournament.

“I think our team has done pretty well in the recent past so they are well set. We will see the situation closer to the time and make changes according to Australian conditions,” he concluded.

READ: Rizwan nominated for ICC Men’s T20I player of the year

Lahore: Chief selector Mohammad Wasim assured players, who were replaced in the T20 World Cup squad today, that they will remain in future plans post 2021 T20 World Cup.

Azam Khan, Mohammad Hasnain have been dropped for the mega event while Khushdil Shah moved to traveling reserves. Sarfaraz Ahmed, Haider Ali and Fakhar Zaman are included in the 15-member squad, replacing above mentioned players.

“It must be tough for Azam, Khushdil and Hasnain for missing out but they still have a lot to offer in their careers. They are in our future plans as a lot of cricket has to be played post the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 and in the lead up to the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia.”

“After reviewing player performances in the highly-competitive National T20 and in consultation with the team management, we have decided to include Haider Ali, Fakhar Zaman and Sarfaraz Ahmed in the squad for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021.

“The three in-form players bring with them wealth of experience and talent, and provide further stability, balance and strength to the side.

Meanwhile, Wasim hailed the intensity and high quality of cricket played in National T20 Cup which helped them to finalize squad.

“The tournament as not only provided the players excellent match practice in the lead up to the UAE competition, it has also given us the opportunity to closely monitor the player progress and then make decisions that are in the best interest of the side for what will be a cut-throat tournament,” he concluded.

Read: Fakhar, Sarfaraz, Haider included in T20 World Cup squad

Lahore: Chief Selector Mohammad Wasim talked to media at Gaddafi Stadium after the squads for the tours of England and West Indies were announced earlier today.
Pakistan men’s team will play three ODIs and as many T20Is in England while West Indies will host Green Shirts for five T20Is and two Tests.
Logic behind Azam Khan’s selection
“We are trying to create a balance between skill and fitness. Fitness is important but you have to gage few things. Azam Khan is improving his fitness and goals have been set for him but viewing need of the team, Azam was preferred,” Wasim said.
‘Imad’s record in UAE has been outstanding’
“Scenario has changed behind Imad’s return. If you look at, the coming tour[s] are important but the events after that, including ICC T20 World Cup which will potentially host by UAE. Imad’s record there has been outstanding.
Domestic performers Usman Salahuddin, Waqas Maqsood neglected once again for WI Tests
“Our Test team is quite settled and the others before them are lined up. They are still waiting for their turn. We have marked replacement and preferences will be given to those who have performed,” he added.
Reason behind Haris Sohail’s return in ODI
“We have won six series in a row but still there are weaker areas. It was highlighted that we are facing problems in middle-order. Haris Sohail has reclaimed the required fitness standards which is why we have made changes to strengthen that area,” he added.

Read: Haris, Imad return, uncapped Azam named as squads for Eng, WI tours announced