Kainat Imtiaz hopeful of making a comeback to the Pakistan side

high-performance camp in Karachi that started on October 10. Pace bowler Kainat Imtiaz expressed her excitement in getting back to training and is hopeful of making a comeback to the international arena.

Imtiaz is among the 27 players the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) selected for the 24-day camp that’s going on at the National Stadium and Hanif Mohammad High Performance Centre in Karachi under bio-secure environment adhering to COVID-19 protocols.

Imtiaz has represented Pakistan in 23 matches across formats taking 15 wickets with her right-arm medium pace. She last played for Pakistan during the Bangladesh series at home in October 2019 and wasn’t part of the 2020 T20 World Cup squad.

“I want to make a comeback in the national team in a proper way,” Imtiaz was quoted as saying by Geo Super. “The time I spent in lockdown allowed me to keep myself focused. It helped me think about how I am going to take my career in the future and how to perform well for Pakistan in upcoming events.”

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Pakistan players haven’t been involved in any cricketing activities since their first-round exit from the T20 World Cup in Australia in March. 28-year-old Imtiaz said the time spend away from the game has been tough and thanked the PCB for arranging the camp to let them get to back to training as a group.

“We are excited and happy to be back in the sport that we all love. I had not seen a cricket ground for over six months. So, it is good to be back playing. The PCB has made wonderful arrangements for us to make us feel relaxed” she said.

“The time we spent before coming to the camp was tougher due to lockdown, but know we can talk to each other, see each other and play with each other."

Pakistan was scheduled to play in the Women’s World Cup Qualifier in Sri Lanka in July, but the International Cricket Council( ICC) rescheduled the Qualifier owing to global pandemic before postponing the World Cup to 2022 to allow the teams have adequate preparation ahead of the global event.

"I hope there’ll be a proper pathway for us to get ready before the events,” Imtiaz said.

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On October 1, PCB appointed David Hemp, former Bermuda cricketer based in Australia, as the new head coach of the Pakistan side. He is currently overseeing the high-performance camp and is expected to be in charge of the side when they take part in the rescheduled Women’s World Cup Qualifier next year.

“He has coached some of Australia's top women cricketers. We all are really looking forward to learning new skills from him,” she added.

All the players and the support personnel have been going through multiple rounds of testing for the global pandemic during the camp. One player tested positive for COVID-19 in the second round of testing and was isolated away from the bio-bubble. Another player and a support staff were also removed from the bubble as a precautionary measure and are regularly being monitored by the PCB.

The domestic schedule for the women cricketers is yet to be announced although the men’s teams have resumed playing domestic cricket last week. According to PCB’s statement, women’s players will compete in limited over tournament, schedule for which will be announced in due course.

“It is good before upcoming season so that we don’t have to start from zero when we are in field for competitions,” she concluded.