Pakistan Should Have The Advantage In The T20 World Cup: Kamran Akmal On Pakistan Stands To Benefit With UAE Hosting The T20 World Cup
Published - 29 Jun 2021, 03:02 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 12:48 AM
Former wicketkeeper-batsman Kamran Akmal believes that the Babar Azam-led Pakistan Cricket Team will benefit from the fact that the upcoming T20 World Cup is going to be staged in the United Arab Emirates.
The upcoming T20 World Cup was originally scheduled to take place in India in the month of October-November but the tournament has now been moved to the UAE owing to the uncertainty surrounding the Covid situation in India.
BCCI President Sourav Ganguly confirmed on Monday that the board has intimated to the ICC that the quadrennial event can be shifted to the UAE.
And, Kamran Akmal believes that given the fact that Pakistan has played a lot of cricket in the UAE in the past decade, they will have an advantage in the tournament.
“Pakistan should have the advantage in the T20 World Cup. We’ve played international cricket for 9 to 10 years in the UAE. That makes Pakistan the most experienced side under the conditions,” Akmal said on his official YouTube channel ‘My Master Cricket Coach’
The UAE has become a hub of franchise Cricket in the past few years, especially post the onset of the pandemic with the IPL and PSL getting stager there in the last two years.
While the entire 2020 edition of the IPL took place in the Emirates, the second phase of PSL 2021 recently culminated in Abu Dhabi.
Before the T20 World Cup takes place, the UAE will be hosting the 2nd phase of IPL 2021.
With a plethora of foreign cricketers involved in both the IPL and the PSL, Kamran Akmal believes that they will also benefit from the past experience of playing in the UAE.
”Not only players from India and Pakistan but from other countries will also benefit going into the T20 World Cup since a lot of them play in both PSL and IPL. Given the conditions in the UAE, Afghanistan can also prove to be a dangerous side, looking at the players that they have. So, it is difficult to pick a favourite for the T20 World Cup,” Akmal said.
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