With three successive wins against India, New Zealand and Afghanistan under their belt, Pakistan is all set to qualify for the semi-finals against minnows Namibia in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday (today).
This will be the first encounter between Pakistan and Namibia in the T20 Internationals.
Tonight’s match will be the sternest test for Namibia as Pakistan have been unstoppable so far in the Super 12 of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021.
Unbeaten so far, Pakistan have gone from dark horses for the tournament to one of the strong favourites in just three games.
While bowling has historically been Pakistan’s forte, the team’s batting, led from the front by captain Babar Azam, has bailed them out twice in the last two games.
Namibia, on the other hand, come into this game on the back of their first loss in the Super 12 to Afghanistan. While it was expected that the Eagles would find it difficult to deal with the spinners in Afghanistan’s ranks, Namibia were undone by the pacers who claimed seven of the nine wickets that fell.
But tonight, Namibia will have to face the barrage of yorkers and bouncers from the dangerous trio of Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf and Hasan Ali, who have claimed 14 of the 21 scalps Pakistan have claimed so far. The spinners, too, have played their role to perfection, giving little respite to opposition batters between overs of searing pace.
On the other hand, the Namibians have to bank upon their “Bomb Squad”, consisting of captain Gerhard Erasmus, David Wiese and J J Smit to post a respectable total on board to challenge Pakistan batsmen.
Pakistan is unlikely to tinker with the combination that has won them games against India, New Zealand and Afghanistan and put them on top of Group 2.
TEAMS
Possible Pakistan XI: Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Babar Azam (captain), Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Asif Ali, Imad Wasim, Shadab Khan, Hasan Ali, Haris Rauf, Shaheen Afridi.
Meanwhile, Namibia are unlikely to make wholesale changes despite the loss against Afghanistan, but could look to strengthen their batting by bringing back Stephen Baard in place of Pikky Ya France, who has gone wicket-less in the tournament so far.
Possible Namibia XI: Stephen Baard, Michael van Lingen, Craig Williams, Gerhard Erasmus (captain), David Wiese, JJ Smit, Zane Green (wk), Jan Frylinck, Nicol Loftie-Eaton, Ruben Trumpelmann, Bernard Scholtz.
