Pakistan Cricket

The wait is finally over ! The schedule for Pakistan in the  ICC World Cup 2015 is out.

Starting from 14th Feb, the 11th ICC World Cup will be taking place at 14 different locations within New Zealand and Australia.

According to the schedule recently revealed by PTV Sports, Pakistan will be playing its first two warm up matches against Bangladesh and England on 9th and 11th February respectively in Sydney, Australia. A complete list of team green’s schedule for ICC World Cup 2015 as revealed by PTV Sports follows,

Pakistan Cricket 2

After the warm-up,  team green will be heading to Adelaide in Australia for its first and most awaited match, against team India. Though this time, the Indian legend Sachin Tendulkar will not be seen stepping foot on the ground but will stay behind the lines as part of the audience; as a result of his retirement from cricket last year; the legend has once again been nominated as the ICC World Cup 2015’s official ambassador.

Lead by MS Dhoni, team India (defending champions) will only comprise of four of its players from last year’s winning team, including Dhoni, Raina, R Ashwin and Kohli.

As for the Pakistani team, Misbah-ul-Haq has been named as the captain for a team comprising of five openers, nine middle order batsman, four spinners, six pace bowlers, four all-rounders and two wicket-keepers.

A complete list of Pakistani Preliminary Squad includes,

Mohammad Hafeez, Sohaib Maqsood, Ahmed Shehzad, Nasir Jamshed, Sharjeel Khan, Ehsan Adil, Sami Aslam, Misbah-ul-Haq, Raza Hasan,  Younis Khan, Yasir Shah, Asad Shafiq, Azhar Ali, Anwar Ali, Kamran Akmal, Fawad Alam, Kamran Akmal, Haris Sohail, Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal, Mohammad Irfan, Wahab Riaz, Junaid Khan, Umar Gul, Mohammad Talha, Saeed Ajmal, Zulfiqar Babar, Shahid Afridi, Bilawal Bhatti, Sohail Tanvir, Sarfraz Ahmed.

Speaking about the team’s performance, the Chief selector for the Pakistani team, Moin Khan said,

At the moment, winning or losing aside, Team Pakistan is performing adequately well in all three formats of the game. The belief in the think tank is that the squad holds immense potential and promise to perform in any conditions.” He further added,

The most positive aspect is that some of our foremost proven talents have overcome physical issues and are raring to be given an opportunity to have a tilt at the global honours

Last time when ICC World Cup 2015 was held in New Zealand and Australia, it was Pakistan which won the World Cup, by a lead of 22 runs over England; we await to see the day and hope that history will repeat itself.