ICC Cricket World Cup 2019: Pakistan snub star batsman for opening fixture against Windies

World Cup 2019 that kicked off on 30 May 2019 and teams are ready to square off against each other. This tussle is to get their hands on the biggest trophy of cricket i-e- World Cup. World Cup 2019 which is being hosted in England. A total of 10 teams are coming in this tournament who were waiting to feature in this tournament.

Pakistan has been in England since the starting of May to play a 5 match ODI series and 1 T20 in England, which looked like an overhaul preparation for Pakistan just before the World Cup. After that, they played 2 warm-up matches scheduled by ICC against Afghanistan which they lost was a shock for the cricketing fans whereas 2nd match was against Bangladesh which got abandoned due to rain.

No Malik in the 12-man squad

The management assessed the performance of the players and now they have axed Shoaib Malik from the 12-man squad that will go onto face West Indies in their campaign opener. Shoaib Malik didn’t look great in the past couple of matches with the bats as well as with the bowl. In last 4 innings, he has got 99 runs and just managed to take 1 wicket for his side that makes him extra baggage for the Pakistan team to carry, in the past couple of matches.

Pakistan have announced a 12-man squad for tomorrow's match against West Indies:

1. FAKHAR ZAMAN
2. IMAM UL HAQ
3. BABAR AZAM
4. M.HAFEEZ
5. SARFARAZ AHMED
6. HARIS SOHAIL
7. ASIF ALI
8. SHADAB KHAN
9. IMAD WASIM
10. M. AMIR
11.WAHAB RIAZ
12. HASAN ALI#CWC19 #PAKvWI

— Saj Sadiq (@SajSadiqCricket) May 30, 2019

Pakistan opted for a strong call ahead of their World Cup campaign opener against West Indies. Their management would be forced to take such harsh decision against a big player to break the losing streak of 10 ODI international matches in a row. Pakistan won their last ODI international match against South Africa in January. As we know, how strong is West Indies as a team looks like in this year World Cup.

Preparations for the opening #CWC19 fixture underway at Trent Bridge.#WeHaveWeWill pic.twitter.com/OzevEzeceN

— Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) May 30, 2019

Pakistan will look to avoid a single void in the team that might get exposed against West Indies in their campaign opener. Let’s see if this might change the fate of Pakistan and bring finishes their drought of a win that they are striving for since last 5 months

Read: ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 SWOT Analysis of 10 teams