• Bismah Maroof expressed her optimism before facing off against India.
• Despite the series defeat, Bismah has high expectations for the big event.
• Kaur claimed that the team had taken inspiration from Shafali Verma.

Before facing off against India in the T20 World Cup, Bismah Maroof, the captain of the Pakistan women’s squad, expressed her optimism.

Along with England, India, Ireland, and the West Indies, Pakistan is assigned to Group 2. They will square off with India on February 12 at Newlands in Cape Town.

Pakistan visited Australia for the ODI and T20I series in preparation for the T20 World Cup.

The three-match ODI series was completely swept by the hosts Australia, who also triumphed in the three-match T20I series.

Despite the series defeat, Bismah has high expectations for the big event.

“I think (the goal) is just to play to your potential on the day. I think it’s a very different venue and a different situation, a different scenario we are in. So we’d like to give our best and let’s hope for the best for the result,” she said as quoted by the T20 World Cup website.

“For us, I think the players will take this as a normal match, but of course, the expectations are more on this match.”

Contrarily, Harmanpreet Kaur claimed that the team had taken inspiration from Shafali Verma and the India Under-19 World Cup team, which had won the inaugural event to be held in South Africa.

“We’re really happy that our under-19 team did really well, and we are also looking forward to our campaign. The winning momentum has started. We also want to continue with that,” she said.

On February 15, Pakistan will face Ireland in a rematch at the same location.

On February 19 at Boland Park in Paarl, they will play West Indies in their third group match; on February 21 at the Newlands in Cape Town, they will play England in their fourth group match.

In the second warm-up game on Wednesday at Bolan Park in Paarl, South Africa defeated Pakistan by a margin of six wickets.

Pakistan chose to bat first and scored 142 runs, which South Africa then chased down in 18.2 overs.

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