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Pakistan not a ‘one-man squad,’ Babar Azam says ahead of India clash in UAE

Pakistan's team members prepare to leave after attending a practice session ahead of their cricket match against India at the Asia Cup at the ICC Academy Ground in Dubai on August 25, 2022. (AFP)
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Updated 27 August 2022
Shahjahan Khurram 
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Pakistan not a ‘one-man squad,’ Babar Azam says ahead of India clash in UAE

  • Pakistan will take the field on Sunday without lethal pacer Shaheen Afridi
  • The last time India and Pakistan met, the latter beat the former by 10 wickets
Updated 27 August 2022
Shahjahan Khurram 

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan captain Babar Azam said on Saturday that his side wasn’t a “one-man squad”, as it prepares to lock horns with arch-rivals India in their opening fixture of the Asia Cup 2022.

Group A heavyweights Pakistan and India will collide on August 28 at the Dubai International Stadium. However, both sides have been rocked with injury problems, with Pakistan set to take the field on Sunday without Shaheen Shah Afridi and Mohammad Wasim Junior.

India, on the other hand, will be without their fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah and Harshal Patel.

Azam said Pakistan had a “squad full of quality cricketers and match-winners” who will take additional responsibility in Afridi’s absence. “In the 2021 T20 World Cup, we have already demonstrated we are not a one-man squad. In five league matches, we had five different player of the matches,” he said.

Afridi was the architect of Pakistan’s last year win over India in the T20 World Cup, taking the three important wickets of captain Rohit Sharma, K.L. Rahul and Suryakumar Yadav. All three are part of India’s team in the T20 Asia Cup.

Azam said Pakistan’s victory over India in last year’s T20 Word Cup would serve only as a good reference point.

“While we will continue to reflect on it [2021 victory over India] positively, Sunday and any other matches down the line will be new fixtures that will be played in new conditions,” he added.

“I know there is tremendous excitement in both countries but for us, it is just another game,” Pakistan’s skipper said. “Our preparations have been excellent and we will take the field oozing with confidence.”

Squads:

Pakistan (from) — Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Naseem Shah, Shahnawaz Dahani and Usman Qadir.

India (from): Rohit Sharma (captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, R Pant, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, R Jadeja, R Ashwin, Y Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan.

Topics: Pakistan India Pakistan cricket India cricket Babar Azam and Virat Kohli

Pakistan vaccinates over 13.6 million children on first day of nationwide anti-polio campaign

Updated 8 sec ago
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Pakistan vaccinates over 13.6 million children on first day of nationwide anti-polio campaign

  • Pakistan launched week-long nationwide campaign to vaccinate over 45 million children on Monday
  • Health workers vaccinate over 7 million children in Punjab, three million in Sindh and 2.2 million in KP provinces
Updated 8 sec ago
NAIMAT KHAN

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani health workers vaccinated over13.6 million children on the first day of the nationwide anti-polio campaign, the National Emergency Operations (NEOC) said in a statement on Tuesday. 

Pakistan launched the Feb. 2-8 campaign, the first of this year, in the country’s Sindh, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan (KP) areas on Monday. The campaign will target over 45 million children in the territories. 

“Over 13.6 million children vaccinated nationwide on the first day of the campaign,” the NEOC said in a statement, adding that over 7.3 million children were vaccinated in the eastern Punjab province. 

Over 3 million children were vaccinated in Sindh, 2.275 million in KP, 559,000 in the southwestern Balochistan province, 82,000 in GB and 233,000 in Azad Kashmir. 

“Polio is an incurable disease that can cause lifelong disability in children,” the NEOC said. “Parents urged to open their doors to polio workers and ensure their children receive polio drops.”

Eliminating poliovirus remains a critical health initiative of Pakistan, which along with Afghanistan, is one of only two countries worldwide where the virus is endemic. Pakistan reported 31 cases of polio in 2025, which authorities say is a significant decline from the alarming 74 cases of the disease it reported in 2024. 

Polio workers and their security escorts have repeatedly been targeted in militant attacks, particularly in parts of Pakistan’s KP and Balochistan provinces, complicating efforts to vaccinate children in remote areas. 

A gun attack targeting a polio vaccination team in the northwestern Bajaur district in December 2025 left one police constable and a civilian dead.

Natural disasters, such as floods, have also disrupted vaccination campaigns in recent years.

Topics: Anti polio campaign National Emergencies Operation Center Anti polio vaccination campaign

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