Pakistan skipper Fatima Sana is set to lead the side for the first time at the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025, beginning on September 30. The all-rounder Fatima Sana, determined to make a strong impact and fully aware of the tournament’s significance, is focused on improving Pakistan’s performances after their underwhelming showings in previous editions, setting her sights on guiding them into the top-four for the first time in their history.
The Pakistan women’s team are prepping up for the upcoming ICC ODI World Cup, starting September 30. The women in green will play all their matches in Sri Lanka due to the ongoing diplomatic tension with India.
Pakistan, who remained unbeaten in the qualifiers held in April, will start their campaign against Bangladesh in Colombo on October 2. Meanwhile, their captain, Fatima Sana, looked determined to compete for the trophy and has stated that she draws inspiration from former India captain MS Dhoni.
Pakistan Women team skipper Fatima Sana seeks inspiration from MS Dhoni ahead of Women’s World Cup 2025
With less than a month to go before the Women’s ODI World Cup begins in India and Sri Lanka at the end of September, preparations are in full flow for teams across the world gunning for some major silverware.One of the hopefuls this year are Pakistan, who will see their team try to take big steps forward with a performance of substance. The team will play their cricket in Colombo, and while the odds of winning the trophy itself are low, the idea will be to keep going as far as possible and to produce some results for fans back home to be proud of.
In order to do so, Pakistan captain Fatima Sana is taking a page out of the book of a man who knows what it takes to win a World Cup campaign in the subcontinent. Speaking in an interview with PTI, she said that MS Dhoni’s leadership and captaincy serves as an inspiration ahead of Pakistan’s WC campaign.
“It is natural to be a little nervous initially when captaining in a big tournament like the World Cup, but I take inspiration from Mahendra Singh Dhoni as a captain,” said Sana in an interview.
“I have seen his matches as India and CSK captain,” she continued.
“His on-field decision-making, calmness and the way he backs his players, there is a lot to learn from that. When I got the captaincy, I thought that I have to become like Dhoni. I also watched his interviews and got to learn a lot.”
Overall, the goal for Pakistan remains to punch above their weight by making the knockout stage. Fatima Sana promised that the ‘jinx’ would be broken by this unit, especially given the understanding of how important this was for the nation’s hopes of growing women’s cricket.
“This time, the jinx will definitely be broken because the young players know how important this tournament is for Pakistan women’s cricket. We will not think about the past. My goal is to take the team to the semifinals,” she said.
She admitted that women’s cricket is on the come-up back home in Pakistan, a successful World Cup campaign was still essential for the attention to break through the noise. Speaking of it as a ‘barrier’, she nevertheless was up for the challenge.
“In Pakistan, girls have started playing cricket in schools and international matches are being telecast live. ICC has also taken a good initiative by increasing the prize money for the Women’s World Cup, which will inspire budding players in Pakistan. But there is still a barrier which we have to break through this tournament,” concluded the Pakistan captain.
Under Fatima Sana’s leadership however, the team have displayed positive signs, highlighted by their unbeaten run in the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2025 that secured their spot in the main event. Pakistan have played the Women’s ODI World Cup five times (1997, 2009, 2013, 2017 and 2022) but went without a single win in 1997, 2013 and 2017. In 2022, their only victory was against the West Indies in Hamilton, and the team finished last after losing all the other matches.
All-rounder Fatima Sana , who has scored 397 runs and taken 45 wickets in 34 ODIs, is confident that the jinx will be broken this time around because the young players are aware their performance will decide the future of women’s cricket in the country.Pakistan will kick off their Cricket World Cup campaign against Bangladesh on October 2 in Colombo.
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