Sports

Nida Dar appointed Pakistan women’s cricket captain

Nida has represented Pakistan in 130 T20Is and 99 ODIs

By Sports Desk

April 06, 2023

Pakistan all-rounder Nida Dar. — Twitter/@cricketpakcompk

In a major shake-up of the women's cricket team, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Thursday announced that Pakistan all-rounder Nida Dar would head the team as captain, while Mark Coles and Saleem Jaffar have been appointed as head coach and chief selector respectively.

Taking to Twitter, PCB shared its recent press release confirming the structural changes in the women's cricket set-up.

After the approval of PCB Management Committee Chairman Najam Sethi, the names were announced.

"The appointments have been made in light of the PCB’s vision and strategy to invest further into women’s cricket and keeping in mind the upcoming international assignments, including hosting South Africa and tours to Bangladesh and New Zealand for the ICC Women’s Championship 2022-25 fixtures," PCB said in a statement.

Overall, in an 11-month period from August 2023 to July 2024, Pakistan women’s team is scheduled to play five bilateral cricket series comprising a total of 15 ICC Women’s Championship 2022-25 ODIs. In addition to these 50-over matches, Pakistan will play as many as 17 T20Is. These ODIs and T20Is will lead to the 10-team ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in Bangladesh and the eight-team ICC Women’s World Cup in India, which will be held in 2024 and 2025, respectively.

Nida Dar

Nida won the PCB Women’s Cricketer of the Year for 2021 and replaces Bismah Maroof, who stepped down from captaincy following the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2023 in South Africa. Nida is one of the most experienced players in the country, having represented Pakistan in 130 T20Is and 99 ODIs.

She is also the leading wicket-taker in T20I women’s cricket with 126 wickets to her name.

Nida was also a member of the Pakistan side that won the Asian Games gold in 2010 and 2014 in Guangzhou, China, and Incheon, South Korea. In 2019, she became the first Pakistan women’s cricketer to feature in Australia’s women’s franchise cricket.

In the ICC Women's Rankings, Nida is presently ranked 32nd, 24th, and ninth in the ODI batters, bowlers, and all-rounders’ categories, respectively. In T20Is, Nida is the 38th-ranked batter, 21st-ranked bowler, and seventh-ranked all-rounder.

Mark Coles

Coles previously served as Pakistan women’s cricket team head coach from 2017 to 2019 and during his time, the side achieved major results, including a fifth finish in the ICC Women’s Championship 2017-2020 that paved the way for the side to feature in the ICC Women’s World Cup 2022.

Also during his time, Sana Mir became the most successful ODI spinner in the world, Javeria Khan and Bismah Maroof were named to lead a multi-nation Women’s Global Development Squad and Nida Dar became the first Pakistan woman player to earn a contract in the WBBL.