Bismah Maroof will continue to lead the women’s limited-overs teams in the 2022-23 season, the Pakistan Cricket Board confirmed on Thursday.
Maroof thanked the PCB for its immense support throughout her career and “especially in helping me strike the right work-life balance after the birth of Fatima [her daughter],” according to a PCB statement.
The captain said: “The 2022-23 cricket season is the busiest for Pakistan women’s side and we are excited and geared up for the challenges it presents.”
She considered the upcoming season as important for the team as “bilateral ODIs will determine whether we qualify for the next ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup” and provide them opportunities to prepare for the T20 World Cup in February 2023.
The Pakistani team will be expected to play at least 25 matches with the schedules for the ACC Women’s T20 Asia Cup and ICC Women’s T20 World Cup to be announced, read a PCB press release.
Initially, the country will host Sri Lanka in Karachi for three T20Is and three ODIs in what will be the first instance of ICC Women’s Championship matches later this month.
Bismah’s team will then head for Belfast to play hosts Ireland and champions Australia in a T20I triangular series from 12-24 July. Then they move to Birmingham for the Commonwealth Games to be held from July 25 to August 8.
“Like the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022, Bismah will travel to Belfast and Birmingham with her daughter Fatima and mother,” the PCB said.
In October, Ireland women cricket team will make their first-ever visit to Pakistan for three T20Is and as many ODIs as well as ICC Women’s Championship matches.
After the series, the women team will feature in ACC Women’s T20 Asia Cup.
They then travel to Australia for three T20Is and three ODIs, Pakistan’s first away ICC Women’s Championship fixtures of the cycle, at the start of 2023.
The team will play ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in February in South Africa.
Women’s cricket head Tania Mallick congratulated Maroof on her retention as the leader of the national side. “She has been an inspiration for women around the world with her demeanour on and off the field.”
Maroof made her Pakistan debut as a 15-year-old against India in an ODI at Jaipur in December 2006. She is the only Pakistan women cricketer with 5,000 international runs. She took reins of the T20I side in 2016 and was named the ODI captain after the 2017 ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup.
