Pakistani captain Fatima Sana's father passed away, so she left the T20 World Cup midway and returned home.
Amid the Women's T20 World Cup 2024 being played in the UAE, a mountain of sorrow has fallen on the young captain of the Pakistan cricket team, Fatima Sana Shaikh. Fatima Sana's father passed away in Karachi on Thursday, October 10. Due to the sudden demise of her father, Fatima Sana is leaving the tournament midway and returning to her country. Sana, who became the captain of the Pakistani team at the age of just 22, is captaining the team in a World Cup for the first time. Not only this. She is also the youngest captain among all the 10 teams of this World Cup.
As soon as the news of Fatima's father's death came, the entire Pakistani team went into mourning. Pakistani players expressed condolences to their captain and her family. The players present in UAE with Fatima expressed their grief on social media.
In the current circumstances, Sana will not be available for Pakistan's next match, which is to be held against Australia on Friday 11 October. In Sana's absence, left-handed opener-wicketkeeper Muniba Ali will lead the team. If Pakistan has to keep its hopes of reaching the semi-finals alive, then it needs to win both its remaining matches or at least one match. This can prove to be very difficult for the Pakistani team in the absence of Fatima Sana, who has performed the best for the team so far.
Strong performance by Fatima
The Pakistani team has played 2 matches in the tournament so far and has performed well in both and Fatima played an important role in this. In the very first match, the team defeated the current Asian champion Sri Lanka. Fatima scored 30 runs in just 20 balls in this match and then took 2 wickets to lead the team to victory. After this, the team lost the next match against India but this match was also very tough and Team India had to struggle. The reason for this was also Fatima who first scored 13 runs in 8 balls and then took 2 wickets for 23 runs.