Author: Mishaal Mubarak

Hardly do mega-events in cricket, let alone women’s cricket, get as much hype as the forthcoming Women’s T20 World Cup has received. The political instability in Bangladesh followed by offers and rejections from different boards to host the tournament was nothing too different from a rollercoaster ride. This rollercoaster ride, however, seems to be coming to an end as things find solid ground once again. International Cricket Council (ICC) announced revised fixtures for the Women’s cricket mega-event, which will now take place in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) starting from 3rd October.  The ten-team tournament will begin with the hosts,…

Comedy can be thrilling. But only for a brief moment. The thrill evaporates as soon as the laughter fills the air. Both genres have a lot in common. That being said, a shift between them is not very difficult to transpire as is evident from the way Pakistan Cricket Team’s scripts have started coming in. They were full of thrilling stuff at one point. Plot twists upon plot twists. Teeming with suspense and mystery. But now it’s pure comedy, of the elite kind, though. You can’t help but laugh. Much like the thrillers they used to direct and produce at…

Nicholas Pooran calls himself a child of franchise cricket. And rightly so. Pick a random T20 tournament during whichever time of the year you want, the odds are very high that you will find the West Indian hitter not only playing there but absolutely nailing it. Nailing it is what has become second nature to him. In the past couple of years, he seems to have cracked the code for T20 cricket. How else do you hit more than 100-meter-long sixes? How else do you take on the opposition as if it’s a video game? So far this year, he…

Pakistan and Bangladesh are battling it out in the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium. Both teams have pace-heavy attacks featuring for them. If you started watching cricket in 2022, you would have counted both teams as nuts. Who plays fast bowlers on belter pitches that offer no assistance to them whatsoever? Its really kamikazeing their careers. But here’s a little spoiler for you. Cricket has been around for centuries before 2022 and you happened to see the Rawalpindi pitch in its most un-Pindi version.  Rawalpindi notoriously became known for its flat wicket during England’s tour of Pakistan in 2022. Playing in Pakistan…

There is a first time for everything. But not all first times need to be experienced. Some of them are better left unencountered. Ask Babar Azam, who ticked off his first first in this series, but if given a choice, he would rather let it pass.  Failing yet again to score big during the first Test match against Bangladesh at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, Babar’s no-run streak has survived another innings. It has been almost two years since the last time he scored a 50-plus run. Although Pakistan has only played seven Test matches since then, for a batter…

ICC Women’s T20 World Cup was to be hosted in Bangladesh before the nation found itself grappling with a country-wide political strife, which saw hundreds of civilians being killed. However, weeks of anti-government protest and the eventual dissolution of the Bangladesh Parliament forced the International Cricket Council (ICC) to start looking for an alternative venue. For the past couple of weeks, the uncertainty around the tournament’s venue had only been growing. ICC’s decision not to make things official until the last moment only made the situation more interesting.  But that has come to an end now, as the ICC has…

A plethora of changes was expected when Pakistan were disgraced out of the recent T20 World Cup. Surprisingly, not a lot of major changes were seen within the team. But that does not change the fact that fans and pundits of the game in the country, have their anger simmering on low heat. The calm after the World Cup in Pakistan was, perhaps, a negotiation between the team and the fans. You get a rejuvenated team that plays up to its potential. We get a couple of months of quiet. But, as they say, the moment of truth has finally…

Starting Wednesday, the cricket world will largely revolve around red-ball cricket fixtures and how they will affect each team’s chances of making it to the WTC final. Thats not normal for cricket in this day and age given that the Hundred just ended a few days ago, the T20 World Cups are popping up one after another and the attention is now, more than ever, on the shorter formats. But somehow the next few months will see the excitement around Test cricket surging. England and Sri Lanka, who have a match to play in Manchester a few hours from now,…

Thats the thing about Bazball. It’s abrupt. It’s unexpected. And most importantly, it’s insane. For instance, in a situation where every match is crucial for your team’s survival in the World Test Championship (WTC) final race, you (being a socially certified sane person) would definitely not get a player on board who has not played an international Test match since 2022. Would you? Yeah, you might. But would you get that player to open the innings in one of the most unforgiving away conditions, completely opposite from what an opener would prefer? You wouldn’t, right? Thats why it’s called Bazball…

Pakistan’s rare jam-packed Test season is just a few sleeps away. While there has been a lot going around the series lately, with matches being shifted and players being released, Pakistan team management has not delayed the announcement of the playing XI for the first Test match which will begin on August 21 against Bangladesh at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium.  Led by the new captain Shan Masood, who will be captaining the side for his second assignment, the Pakistan team has decided to field four pacers with Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah leading the attack and Mohammad Ali and Khurram…