Pakistan Roaring For Semi-finals In Twenty20 World Cup

ABU DHABI: Riding on the crest waves, Babar Azam’s Team Pakistan is roaring to cement their place in the semifinals of ICC T20 World Cup when they take on minnows Namibia here at Zayed Stadium on Tuesday night.

Despite toppling three top teams of Group-II, including pre-tournament favorites India, Pakistan cannot be expected take debutants Namibia lightly. This is the time the green shirts must stamp their authority over the African nation after crushing India, New Zealand and Afghanistan in their first three games.

“Personally I don’t see, Pakistan would be making any change in their winning combination,” an old cricketer told APP during the media box here on Monday.

However, the team is looking at veteran Muhammad Hafeez, Fakhar Zaman and Hasan Ali to come good ahead of their tough semi-finals. The Pakistan players must keep their feet at the ground as the shorter format remained unpredictable and dangerous because only a single performance can turn the game, he added.

Mood in Pakistan camp is rosy and confident, he said. After two days of complete rest, main players have had extensive training session at ICC academy Ground Dubai on Monday where the batting line up including Babar Azam, Muhammad Rizwan, Fakre Zaman, Hafeez, Asif Ali have their net practice with hundreds of spectators were there watching their heroes in action.

The bowlers Shaheen Afridi, Hasan Ali, experienced Muhammad Hafeez, spinner Shadab Khan, Hammad Waseem have their bowling in the net.

Pakistan team have in great confidence with beat strong and pre-favorite India by 10 wickets wherein both Rizwan and skipper Babar Azam shown their tremendous form in the batting against Indian bowlers. After India, Pakistan defeated New Zealand, a team also recorded eight wickets victory against India on Sunday, last at Dubai International cricket Stadium besides recording last over victory against Afghanistan when Asif Ali smashed all the Afghan bowlers with his superb hard hitting and guided the team to victory.

Indian lost the match against New Zealand somehow slipped into deep trouble as India has win all its three matches against Namibia, Afghanistan and Scotland and on high margin if want to play in the semi-final from group-2.

New Zealand also come up so hard against India and cemented their position in the same group for the semi-final. New Zealand bowlers showed superb form and did not give much time to India batsman to strike back and restrict them to score only 110 runs, which New Zealand batsmen chased it comfortably on the loss of two wickets only.