 Pakistan the present ICC World twenty20 champion will start their title defense with the game against Bangladesh at St. Lucia. However the loss against Zimbabwe in their warm-up game has created some doubt in the spectator mind but Shahid Afridi knows his boy is eager to bounce back and start their twenty20 campaign on brighter note.
In the game against Zimbabwe, Shahid Afridi and Abdur Razzaq failed miserably with the bat and that is one of the reasons why they have lost the game by 12 runs. In the absence of Shoaib Mallik, Rana-Naved and Younis Khan Pakistan looks younger lot but they are very talented side and on their day they can beat nay one in this world. The main worry of concern is the absence of Umar Gul, in the last minute he has withdrawn his name from world twenty20. In last two world twenty20 he has helped Pakistan on many occasions to bounce back in the game. Shahid Afridi knows his place can’t be fulfilled. Pakistan may have plenty of problems but they start their campaign as firm favorite to win against Bangladesh. If we go by stats, Bangladesh just manage to win three twenty20 internationals out of 14 games they have played so far. In the last two edition of world twenty20 they have manage to won just one game against West Indies which allowed them to qualify for super 8’s in 2007. They need their batsmen to come good against stronger opponents if they would like to give another shocking result to the cricketing world. In bowling department both sides have good spin attack and pace attack, so it will be batting which will decide the fate of the game. Likely Playing XI for both Teams (Match is Schedule to begin at 22:30 PM India Time) Pakistan Squad: Mohammad Hafeez, Kamran Akmal (WK), Shahid Afridi (Captain), Umar Akmal, Misbah-ul-Haq, Fawad Alam, Abdul Razzaq, Mohammad Sami, Mohammad Aamer, Mohammad Asif, Saeed Ajmal. Bangladesh Squad: Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Mohammad Ashraful, Aftab Ahmed, Mahmudullah, Naeem Islam, Mushfiqur Rahim (WK), Shakib Al Hasan (Captain), Mashrafe Mortaza, Abdur Razzak, Syed Rasel. |
