Pakistan captain Fatima Sana leaves the team midway through the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2024

Pakistan's captain Fatima Sana has left the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2024 midway due to a family emergency. Sana has left UAE, where the tournament is being held, for her home to Karachi.

The 22-year-old is likely to miss Pakistan's next match against Australia on Friday. The Women in Green will play New Zealand in their final group match on Monday. As of now, Sana is likely to be back in UAE for the New Zealand clash.

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Fatima Sana leaves Women's T20 World Cup 2024 midway

Fatima Sana will return to Pakistan due to the death of her father. The news was confirmed by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) through a statement. It has been confirmed that the wicketkeeper-opener Muneeba Ali will step in for Sana as Pakistan's captain.

Father of Pakistan Women's team captain Fatima Sana has passed away in Karachi.

Fatima will fly back home on the first available flight. #PakPassion #FatimaSana pic.twitter.com/6ChkxzOwID

— PakPassion.net (@PakPassion) October 10, 2024

Fatima Sana's performance in Women's T20 World Cup 2024

Fatima Sana's unavailability is likely to hurt Pakistan's hopes of making it to the semifinal. They have won one and lost one match so far. The Women in Green won their opening clash against Sri Lanka by a convincing margin of 31 runs.

However, they lost the next match to arch-rivals India by 6 wickets with 7 balls remaining. Sana made key contributions in both the matches Pakistan have played so far. In the first match, she scored a brisk 30 off 20 balls to take her team to a decent score.

She was also the highest run-scorer for her team in this match. With the ball, she finished with 2-10 in 2.5 overs, which also included the big wicket of Sri Lankan captain Chamari Athapaththu. She was adjudged Player of the Match for her all-round performance.

Fatima was also excellent against India. The young allrounder returned figures of 2-23 in the match and ensured that Pakistan's net run rate did not fall too much. Currently, Pakistan are at the third spot in the group, behind Australia and India.

Big games for Pakistan

Their upcoming matches are expected to be highly difficult ones, especially the one against Australia on Friday. Australia, the defending champions of the tournament have won both their games convincingly so far and will pose a huge challenge.

Without their regular captain, Muneeba Ali, the stand-in captain will face the huge challenge of marshaling the resources in front of a formidable Australian team. Pakistan will also hope for senior players like Nidar Dar and Aliya Riaz.

Fatima Sana is the youngest captain of this tournament. At 22, she is already the future star of Pakistan's cricket team and has shown her skillset for the future.

She replaced Nida Dar as Pakistan's captain after the team's disappointing Asia Cup campaign, in which they failed to reach the final. Sana has played with a positive mindset and wants her team to follow the same path.