Why Do They Call It Pickleball

Mohammad Wasim, the former Pakistan batter and men's chief selector, has been appointed head coach of the women's national team with the women's T20 Asia Cup a little under a month away. Junaid Khan and Abdur Rehman, both former Pakistan bowlers, will serve as assistant coach and spin-bowling coach respectively. No batting coach has been appointed, and it is understood that Wasim will act in that role himself.

A PCB statement confirmed that the appointments were only for the Asia Cup, to be played in Dambulla from July 19 to 28. There has been no word on whether the appointments could extend beyond the tournament.

The bulk of Wasim's coaching experience has been with Northern, a side that existed in the Pakistan domestic structure for four years when the PCB revamped the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy at the behest of Imran Khan, then the Pakistan prime minister and the patron of the PCB. Wasim led Northern to successive runners-up finishes, with his side noted for bringing young players through. He also won silverware at the National T20 Cup, with Northern triumphing in the tournament in 2019-20. He was later appointed chief selector of the men's team, before being abruptly sacked when Najam Sethi briefly took over as PCB chairman in December 2022.

For the last few series, Pakistan have played under an interim head coach, Mohtashim Rasheed, with former international cricketers Taufeeq Umar and Salim Jaffar serving as batting and bowling coach respectively.

The T20 Asia Cup comes at a challenging time for the Pakistan team after a pair of difficult tours. They won just one of eight T20Is in the West Indies and in England, and went winless in both ODI series. Those followed a year where extended dry runs were interspersed with encouraging results, most notably a home T20I series whitewash of South Africa, and becoming the first Asian women's side to win a T20I series in New Zealand.

A women's PSL appears a bleak prospect even as the PCB has notionally committed to it, and there were no exhibition women's matches held in concurrence with the 2024 men's PSL, as was the case in 2023.

While no squad has been named for the Asia Cup, the PCB has named a 28-member group for a four-day training camp in Karachi.