Pakistan’s Men’s National Cricket Team captain Babar Azam held a press conference on Wednesday where he provided an update regarding the Men in Green’s squad for the upcoming 2024 T20 World Cup which is set to commence from 1st June at the Grand Prairie Stadium of Texas, USA.
Babar who recently got reappointed as the white ball captain of the Shaheens last month, will be seen leading the National team in the upcoming 2024 T20 World Cup and this World Cup is going to be his third one as a captain.
During the press conference, the 29 year old was asked whether the squad that has been selected for the five match T20i series against New Zealand will be the one which will board the flight to the West Indies and the USA or if some changes are going to be made to which the Pakistan Captain replied that there’s a lot of time for the World Cup and the squad will be finalized soon.
“Currently, our focus is on the series against New Zealand but a similar squad will be picked for the 2024 T20 World Cup. You never know what will happen next because there’s a lot of time left for the T20 World Cup,” Babar said in the press conference.
“We are going to have time to make alterations to the squad even after announcing it. There are no players currently who are guaranteed to make the squad for the World Cup. We will give our best efforts to select the best possible squad which can perform well at the 2024 T20 World Cup,” Babar Azam added.
Arch rivals India and Pakistan will be competing against each other in the most awaited match of this year on 9th of June at New York’s Eisenhower Park.
This year’s mega event, which is set to commence from 1st June, has seen some changes being made in the format as the 20 participating teams will be divided into four groups of five teams each. Pakistan and India are part of Group A, along with Canada, Ireland and the USA.
Defending Champions England are a part of Group B, which consists of Namibia, arch rivals Australia, Scotland, and Oman. Group C consists of Afghanistan,the co-hosts West Indies, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and Uganda, while Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are a part of Group D along with Nepal, South Africa and the Netherlands.
The teams that manage to finish in the top two of each group will qualify for the Super Eight stage, where the qualified teams will get divided into two groups, which will consist of four teams each. The Super 8 draw will be decided on the basis of the pre-tournament seedings of the participating teams, and their finishing positions of 1st and 2nd in the group stage will not be considered for the Super 8 draw. Each participating team will have a fixed group for the Super 8 stage at the start of the tournament.
The teams that finish in the top 2 of their respective Super-8 groups will qualify for the Semi-Finals, and the winners of Semi-Finals 1 & 2 will compete against each other in the Final of the 2024 ICC T20 World Cup.
The two Semi finals will take place on 26th and 27th of June in the cities of Guyana and Trinidad respectively while the blockbuster ‘Final) of the World – Cup will be played on 29th June in Barbados.
England are the reigning champions after their famous victory in the 2022 T20 World Cup final against Pakistan in Australia.
READ: Pakistan vs New Zealand 1st T20I Live Update
SOURCE: Cricket Pakistan