KARACHI: The newly-appointed seven-member women’s national selection committee has named a 17-player Pakistan women’s squad for this month’s tour to England, the country’s cricket board said on Wednesday.

Nida Dar will continue to lead the side, which will feature in three Twenty20 Internationals from May 11-19 and three one-dayers from May 23-29 May.

The ODIs will be played as a part of the ICC Women’s Championship 2022-25 and this will be Pakistan’s eighth and final series in the current event cycle, with the team currently placed fifth in the rankings.

To ensure direct qualification to next year’s ICC Women’s World Cup, Pakistan would need to ensure they don’t drop further in the standings. They were subjected to a 3-0 series whitewash by West Indies at home recently.

The top five teams from this championship, along with hosts India, will directly qualify for the 50-over showpiece.

In addition to the six white-ball international matches, the tourists will also play two warm-up games (T20 and One-Day) against ECB Development XI on May 9 and 21.

For their first England tour since 2016, the national side will fly to the UK on Sunday.

Squad: Nida Dar (captain), Aliya Riaz, Ayesha Zafar, Diana Baig, Fatima Sana, Gull Feroza, Muneeba Ali (wicket-keeper), Najiha Alvi (wicket-keeper), Nashra Sundhu, Natalia Parvaiz, Rameen Shamim, Sadaf Shamas, Sadia Iqbal, Sidra Amin, Tuba Hassan, Umm-e-Hani, Waheeda Akhtar.

Published in Dawn, May 2nd, 2024