LAHORE: Pakistan captain Babar Azam knows very well that only a clean sweep against Bangladesh can help his country retain the No. 1 ranking in Twenty20s when they meet in the first of the three-match series on Friday.
“When you think that you have to retain the No. 1 spot, every match is do or die for us,” Babar said Thursday. “We have planned accordingly, we have talked to the players that they should give 110% to retain this No. 1 ranking.”
Pakistan has been at the top of rankings since January 2018 with 270 points despite winning only one out of nine completed T20s last year. A 3-0 rout at the hands of second-string Sri Lanka — also in Lahore late last year — saw Babar take over the captaincy from Sarfaraz Ahmed. But Babar, the No. 1-ranked batsman in T20s, struggled in his debut series as captain when Australia beat Pakistan 2-0.
Pakistan will lose its No. 1 ranking if it doesn’t beat Bangladesh 3-0. Even a 2-1 victory will see Australia pushing Pakistan to second.
Chief selector Misbah-ul-Haq, who is also the head coach, has recalled aging allrounders Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Hafeez after Babar suggested that he needed the experience of both players.
Hafeez has been out of the T20 team since playing his last match in November 2018, while Malik, who has played 111 T20s, hasn’t played in the shortest format for Pakistan for almost one year.
“They are senior players and their presence in the team will help me,” Babar said.
Pakistan dropped experienced bowlers Mohammad Amir and Wahab Riaz and brought in uncapped pace sensation Haris Rauf, who took 16 wickets in the Big Bash League in Australia. Shaheen Afridi, with 14 wickets in T20s, is the most experienced pace bowler. There are also two other young fast bowlers, Mohammad Hasnain and Mohammad Musa.
The tour was only finalized last week when Bangladesh agreed to split the Twenty20 series and the two ICC World Test Championship matches in three phases after the national cricket boards reached consensus in Dubai in a meeting facilitated by International Cricket Council chairman Shashank Manohar.
Bangladesh will return for the first test in Rawalpindi from Feb. 7-11. After a break of almost two months, Bangladesh will play an ODI and the second test in Karachi on April 3-9.
Late last year, Sri Lanka also split its tour to Pakistan in two phases when it played a Twenty20 series in Lahore and then returned in December for two test matches in Rawalpindi and Karachi.
Bangladesh’s experienced wicketkeeper-batsman, Mushfiqur Rahim, is the only notable absentee from the tour after he pulled out of both Twenty20s and the two test matches because of security concerns. But captain Mahmudullah said is focused on playing.
“We left it (security concerns) when we boarded the plane,” Mahmudullah said. “We are just thinking about playing good cricket in Pakistan, it’s good to be back here and we are looking forward to a good show here.”
Mahmudullah said he doesn’t believe in the rankings and hoped all his players are in good form after competing in the recent Bangladesh Premier League.
“If you think about those ratings, probably it might affect your game so we’re not thinking about those things,” Mahmudullah said. “We know that Pakistan is a very good strong team ... but if you see our T20 performance graph, it’s been going good for the last few series.”
Bangladesh recalled experienced opening batsman Tamim Iqbal and also has the bowling experience of Mustafizur Rahim and Robel Hossain to combat Pakistan’s strong batting line up.
“It’s a mix of youth and experience players,” Mahmudullah said. “We need to think about our games individually and team-wise so that we can perform really well.”
Pakistan needs to sweep Bangladesh to keep No. 1 T20 ranking
https://arab.news/9xbcc
Pakistan needs to sweep Bangladesh to keep No. 1 T20 ranking
- Pakistan has been at the top of rankings since January 2018
- This is Bangladesh’s first tour to Pakistan in 12 years
Smylie wins on LIV Golf debut, leads Ripper GC to team title in Riyadh
- Jon Rahm and Torque GC finish second in the individual and team competitions respectively
RIYADH: Ripper GC captain Cameron Smith believes his new teammate Elvis Smylie can one day become the best golfer in the world. After the 23-year-old Australian produced four sizzling rounds to win on his LIV Golf debut, the rest of the league may very well share the same sentiment.
Smylie capped off an impressive first week under the lights at Roshn Group LIV Golf Riyadh, shooting a final-round bogey-free 8-under 64 on Saturday to hold off a hard-charging Jon Rahm by one stroke. He also led the Rippers to the team title, as the Aussies swept both trophies going into their biggest tournament of the season at LIV Golf Adelaide next week.
“It’s a dream come true,” said Smylie, who officially joined the team last month. “I really didn’t know what to expect this week. Playing at night is obviously a whole different ballgame out here. I wanted to come out here and make a statement. I wanted to prove that I’m one of the best out here, and I feel like I’ve done that. It’s only up from here.”
Smith agreed. “The crazy thing is I still think he’s got a lot of improving to go, which is pretty scary, really, for the rest of us, because he waxed us this week. I genuinely think he can be the best golfer in the world. He’s got all the tools of the trade. He just needs to keep doing what he’s doing and knuckle down.”
With the win, Smylie earns the projected points allotted by the Official World Golf Ranking to the winner of this week’s LIV Golf tournament. The OWGR announced earlier this week that points will be awarded for LIV Golf tournaments this season to the top 10 and ties. Smylie entered the week ranked 134th and is expected to move up significantly with the victory.
Smylie’s winning score of 24 under is the lowest in league history, a byproduct perhaps of the league’s adjusted format from 54 to 72 holes. He also beat the biggest field in LIV Golf history after an increase from 54 to 57 players this season.
But more impressive than the raw numbers was Smylie’s sublime play, especially with a new blade putter. “Everything looked like a bucket for me, which is nice,” said Smylie, who ranked third in the field in strokes gained putting.
He needed a hot putter down the stretch to create some separation from the field, then withstand the last-ditch rally by Rahm, the Legion XIII captain and two-time LIV Golf individual champion.
Rahm started the day two shots behind co-leaders Smylie and Peter Uihlein and was three strokes behind when Smylie birdied the par-4 12th. But the Spaniard closed fast with birdies on five of his last six holes, including the last four.
He drove the green at the 396-yard par-4 18th but could not convert the eagle putt. Still, his final birdie put the finishing touches on a 9-under bogey-free 63, the lowest round of the week, and reduced Smylie’s lead to one.
Smylie, however, was not aware of the slim margin until hitting his approach shot at the 18th that left him on the edge of the green.
“I actually didn’t know that I had to two-putt the last green,” he said. “I thought I would have had a two-shot lead going into 18. But as soon as I was walking up the green, I saw that I only had one, so I’m like, I’ve got to clutch up here and make sure to get this up-and-down.”
Rahm, who shot a final-round 11-under 60 in his last regular-season LIV Golf tournament in Indianapolis last year to clinch his second consecutive season-long title, pointed to his failure to make birdie at the par-5 sixth and a poor approach shot at the par-4 11th as missed opportunities. Even so, he was pleased with making a run to earn his fifth runner-up finish and 25th top-10 result in 27 regular-season LIV Golf appearances.
“It was a fantastic round of golf, shot 9-under,” he said. “Elvis had a great day and a two-shot lead. If anything, if there’s one or two shots to look at, I’ve got to go to earlier in the week.”
RangeGoats GC’s Uihlein finished third after shooting a 67 for 21 under, while Fireballs GC’s David Puig and 4Aces GC’s Thomas Pieters shot 65s to share fourth place with Torque GC’s Abraham Ancer.
The team competition turned into a battle between Ripper and Torque. The Australians started off fast, with Marc Leishman beginning his round with four straight birdies; the team collectively was 11 under through their first six holes.
Torque responded with Ancer, making his first start for his new team after four years with Fireballs GC, and Sebastian Munoz each shooting 66.
But the 64s by Smylie and Lucas Herbert were supported by Smith’s 65 and Leishman’s 69 to produce a fourth-round team score of 26 under, the third-best single round team score in league history. Ripper’s tournament total of 69 under is a league record as they won their fifth regular-season team title by three shots.
