Pakistan and India share points as the hosts advance to the Super 4 stage of the Asia Cup

Powerered by Babar Azam's 151 and Iftikhar Ahmed's 109*, Pakistan kicked-off their Asia Cup 2023 campaign with an  emphatic 238-run win over Nepal in Multan.

Markhor presents a very detailed preview of the upcoming Asia Cup and explains how Pakistan can overcome hype surrounding the favourites tag and actually win their third Asia Cup title.

Pakistan go into the Asia Cup as the number one ranked ODI team after defeating Afgahnistan in the 3-match series.

Usman Qadir chats to Saj Sadiq about his lack of consistent chances in international cricket, his disappointment at not being given a run of matches for Pakistan, responds to accusations that he has only played international cricket due to his friendship with Babar Azam, any regrets on leaving Australia and returning to Pakistan, the pressure of having a cricketing legend as his father, his future hopes to return to international cricket and more.

"I've not had the chances that some other players have been given to prove themselves" : Usman Qadir - YouTube

Imad Wasim chats to Saj about missing out on selection for the Afghanistan series and Asia Cup, his hopes of an ODI recall, Pakistan's chances at the Asia Cup and World Cup, looks forward to the CPL, his experience of MLC, Mohammad Amir's continued retirement from international cricket and more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gCu4-iflFg

Shadab Khan chats to Saj about The Hundred, his hopes of playing Test cricket again for Pakistan, Babar Azam's captaincy, some fans having short memories when it comes to player performances, the upcoming Asia Cup, Pakistan's huge clash against India at the World Cup, any plans for Virat Kohli, Pakistan's chances at this year's World Cup and more.

https://youtu.be/69NXmJq6-Aw

The Pakistan Cricket Board has appointed wicketkeeper-batter Rohail Nazir as the Pakistan Shaheens captain for the Top End T20 Series in Darwin, Australia, which is being organised by Northern Territory Cricket (NTC) from 30 July to 6 August.

Apart from the NTC side, NT Strike, and Pakistan Shaheens, Australian Capitol Territory’s ACT Comets, Melbourne Stars, Melbourne Renegades and Papua New Guinea (PNG) will participate in the six-team tournament in a T20 format with the top-two sides progressing to the final.

At the backend of the T20 matches, Shaheens will also play two 50-over matches against PNG and NT Strike on 8 and 9 August, respectively.

The Darwin tour is part of the PCB’s policy to create more opportunities for the emerging cricketers to play away cricket in different conditions against different oppositions across all formats so that they can hone their skills and also expand the pool of players. In this relation, Pakistan Shaheens recently toured Zimbabwe and are presently in Sri Lanka for the ACC Men’s Emerging Teams Asia Cup. The squad will also take part in the 19^th Asian Games Hangzhou 2022 from 19 September to 8 October.

Rohail Nazir has played 33 first-class matches and has previously captained Pakistan Shaheens. He recently toured Zimbabwe where the Shaheens’ squad played two four-dayers and six 50-over matches in May.

Aaliyan Mahmood made his first-class debut in the 2022-23 season, while Basit Ali and Shawaiz Irfan featured in the U19 series against Bangladesh in Multan in 2022. Faisal Akram and Mohammad Irfan Khan were on the roaster of Karachi Kings for the HBL Pakistan Super League 2023, while Mohammad Imran was part of Karachi Kings in the HBL Pakistan Super League 2022. Right-arm fast Syed Zeeshan Zameer featured for Islamabad United in the HBL Pakistan Super League 2023.

In addition to the above cricketers, the side also includes seven teenagers who were part of the Pakistan U19 squad that toured Bangladesh for a four-dayer, five 50-over and one T20 match series in May 2023. They are Amir Hassan, Ali Asfand, Arafat Minhas, Azan Awais, Sajjad Ali, Shamyl Hussain and Wahaj Riaz.

Pakistan Shaheens squad:

Rohail Nazir (captain), Aaliyan Mahmood, Ali Asfand, Amir Hassan, Arafat Minhas, Azan Awais, Basit Ali, Faisal Akram, Mohammad Imran, Sajjad Ali, Mohammad Irfan Khan, Shamyl Hussain, Shawaiz Irfan, Syed Zeeshan Zameer and Wahaj Riaz

Schedule of Pakistan Shaheens’ matches:

30 Jul – vs NT Strike (T20)

31 Jul – vs ACT Comets (T20)

1 Aug – vs Melbourne Renegades (T20)

2 Aug – vs Melbourne Stars (T20)

4 Aug – vs PNG (T20)

6 Aug – Final

8 Aug – vs PNG (50-over)

9 Aug – vs NT Strike (50-over)

Grant Bradurn at the end of Day 1:

Elaborate on how well your twofast forwarders golden in the morning.

Yeah, very, very, very proud of Nasim and Shaheen.

Shaheen taking his hundredth wicket here today was very special for him for obvious reasons too.

Been a year in the 90s for him, a very long nervous 90s because obviously of his injury that happened in the same ground so he was very happy.

Obviously we're ecstatic for him to take his hundredth today and bowl very well in a game.

As you well know, we have only taken two seamers into the match.

We rely heavily on the two seamers being able to put in a really serious shift and both of the boys bowled superbly today.

I thought we finished the day well with that little session at the end. Probably our best spell of the day.

We started very well of course and managed to makesome inroads into a very strong top order of Sri Lanka and particularly pleased with the way we finished today.

There were some parts in the middle which we weren't 100% happy with.

We set very high standards for this team and in this new WTC cycle.

We're setting about a new brand of cricket for Pakistan.

We want to go to new levels and we're setting high standards and some of the standards in the middle just show that we're a little bit shy of match hardness, that's all.

How does he rate SSA and NS?

We've gota champion bowling attack.

Shaheen is one of the leaders of that attack but we've got a number of other champion bowlers who aren't in Sri Lanka currently and on the park in Sri Lanka.

So we pride ourselves on producing quality bowlers and we're very happy with the balance of our attack that we put out today.

But Shaheen and Nasim, as I said, they were required to put in a real shift today on a wicket that traditionally is a batting friendly wicket for a day and a half.

And they certainly responded very well today and they are certainly champions of our team.

But we're very proud of all of our sides (all formats) having a foundation of quality bowling attacks across all formats.

On Salman Agha

He's had some real success early.

He is a wonderful bowler in terms of the variations that he bowled.

But again today I think he also showed that Test cricket is still about learning and he's still a student of the game and he's a wonderful student.

He's always hungry to learn new things.

He has developed a new delivery which he hasn't released today.

You might see it in this match but maybe in the second innings and that really impresses me about him.

Have a huge respect for him as a person and for what he's done and he's a wonderful young man to work with.

He's difficult to catch to, he's difficult to read.

And with his new mystery ball, let's see,it might take him to new levels.

But he showed today that, and I think all of our spinners showed today, that the pace you bowl on this pitch was very important.

And at times we were too quick and allowed batters just to freely take singles at their will, and at times we were a little bit slow and that opened up scoring opportunities for them.

So on a pitch today which was rather slow, the pace of our spinners had to be deadly accurate and we weren't quite accurate enough and our pace wasn't quite consistent enough for the standards we set. But we've already spoken about that and they understand.