The Pakistani skipper Misbah-ul-Haq shocked to be ranked at the seventh spot in the inaugural of the Twenty20 ranking

The Pakistani skipper Misbah-ul-Haq shocked to be ranked at the seventh spot in the inaugural of the Twenty20 ranking

Despite of finishing as runner-ups in the first ever World Twenty20 Championship in 2007, clinching the title in 2009 and making into the semi-finals in the third title-fight which was held in Caribbean last year, the team of Pakistan was shocked to be ranked
at the seventh spot in the most recent inaugural of the Twenty20 ranking.

The inaugural rankings were devised for the games played from August 2009 to August 2011. During this time, Pakistan faced 13 defeats out of 24 games which is the reason why the former Twent20 Champions were ranked at the seventh spot.

On hearing about the recent ranking which was announced this week by the International Cricket Council (ICC), the skipper of the Pakistani team Misbah-ul-Haq and the players were shocked. However the captain Misbah declared that he and the players are eager
to improve their standing before the fourth edition of the World Twenty20 champion which will take place in 2012.              

“It was quite a shock to the whole team. We felt it quite a lot, all the players. We’ve spoken about it as well. All the players have quite a lot of concern about it. All the players want to do well. We’ve lost quite a few of our last T20s, so all the players
felt it and their thinking is that they need to improve it now.” Misbah-ul-Haq said.

England, who won the title last year, leads the table with 127 points. Sir Lanka is at the second spot with one point behind the English team while New Zealand managed to secure a spot in top three with 117 points. Pakistan received 97 points and is well
behind the top six teams on the table.

The general manager of ICC David Richardson, who was also the former wicket-kipper of South Africa, said that the introduction of the Twenty20 ranking will bring more interest for the cricket fans who would want to see their team on the top.

“The launch of T20 rankings will generate even more interest in the shortest format and will help to give more context to bilateral T20 matches,” Richardson said.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=1969

Posted by Sohaib Anwar on Oct 28 2011. Filed under Pakistan, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry