The Pakistan cricket team’s plans to travel to Dubai before arriving in Hyderabad for the ODI World Cup in India have been cancelled over visa issues. As per a report, Babar Azam and his men had planned to travel to Dubai for a pre-World Cup team bonding trip but it couldn’t be materialised. The plan had to be cancelled as the Pakistan team is still waiting to get visas for their travel to India. Of the 9 teams that are participating in the tournament, alongside India, the Pakistan team is reportedly the only one to have not received their visa yet.
Pakistan were supposed to fly to the UAE next week and stay there for a couple of days before heading to Hyderabad for their first warm-up game against New Zealand on September 29.
But now those plans have been ruled out as the Pakistan team will head to Karachi and fly to Hyderabad next week, as per a report in ESPNCricinfo. Pakistan will be travelling to India for the first time since 2012-13.
It also has to be noted that neither team has travelled to the other’s country for a bilateral series since 2012-13 when Pakistan had come to India for a white-ball series. In fact, only two players from the current Pakistan squad have travelled to India before for cricketing assignments.
Pakistan will open their World Cup campaign against The Netherlands on October 6 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad.
On Friday, Pakistan named a 15-player squad for the World Cup with Babar Azam leading the squad.
But they will be missing the presence of their star pacer Naseem Shah who picked up niggle injury during their Super Four clash against India at the Asia Cup. He was off the field during the middle of his over and later ruled out of the competition.
Hasan Ali has been named in the squad as Naseem’s replacement. Pakistan’s renowned pace attack will be led by Shaheen Shah Afridi. Backing him will be Haris Rauf, Mohammed Waseem, and Hasan Ali.
Pakistan squad for the upcoming World Cup:Babar Azam (c), Shadab Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Abdullah Shafique, Mohammad Rizwan, Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Salman Ali Agha, Mohammad Nawaz, Usama Mir, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi and Mohammad Wasim.
With ANI inputs
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