Pakistan’s top-order women batter, Bismah Maroof, has confirmed her availability for the ICC Women’s World Cup 2022 and will participate in warm-up matches in Karachi as part of the side’s selection and preparation for the New Zealand event that will take place from 4 March to 3 April 2022.
Maroof, who has played 108 ODIs and T20Is each in her career that started in 2006, began her maternity leave in December 2020 and had a baby girl in August 2021. She has already resumed cricketing activities as well as fitness sessions as part of her post-childbirth rehabilitation at the National High-Performance Centre. She will soon commence net practice.
Maroof said in a statement, “The past few months have been the best of my life. Becoming a mother and spending time with my daughter has given me immense pleasure, but it is now time to return to my passion of representing Pakistan on an international stage”.
She explained, “The maternity leave helped me realize the significance of navigating the balance of raising a child and maintaining my professional cricketing career as I missed being on the field each time I saw the girls in action. But thanks to the PCB Parental Support Policy, which has greatly facilitated my return to cricket, I can now resume my ambitions and aspirations of playing for Pakistan and hope to make a useful contribution in our target of doing well in New Zealand”.
Under the policy, if Maroof is selected, she will be allowed to be accompanied by her dependent child and one support person of her choice.
She will be one of the 36 probables who will feature in a seven-match tri-series at the Hanif Mohammad High-Performance Centre from 10 to 19 January. The female players will be split into two squads and will be joined by a local boys’ side with the New Zealand-bound squad that is to be named on 25 January.
Probables for Practice Matches
Aimen Anwar, Aliya Riaz, Anam Amin, Anoosha Nasir, Ayesha Bilal, Ayesha Naseem, Ayesha Zafar, Nahida Khan, Bismah Maroof, Diana Baig, Fareeha Mehmood, Fatima Sana Khan, Ghulam Fatima (subject to fitness), Gull Feroza, Iram Javed, Javeria Rauf, Javeria Khan, Kainat Hafeez, Kainat Imtiaz (subject to fitness), Maham Tariq, Muneeba Ali, Najiha Alvi, Nashra Sandhu, Natalia Parvaiz, Nida Dar, Omaima Sohail, Ramin Shameem, Saba Nazir, Sadaf Shamas, Sadia Iqbal, Saima Malik, Sidra Ameen, Sidra Nawaz, Syeda Aroob Shah, Tuba Hassan, and Umm-e-Hani.
