Image Credit- ICC
Parties exist where you are invited to a party but the host does not want you to attend. There are also events that nobody wants to attend.
Pakistan and Ireland are in that final spot in Lauderhill, Florida, under drenching weather. There is nothing that their last group match on Sunday can do to reverse their elimination from the T20 World Cup. However, it has to be played, weather allowing, so they will prepare for one more match that won’t affect anything about this tournament and probably won’t affect anyone’s ability to qualify for the next one in 2026.
Before the players return to face the fury of a people whose resentment has been building in the wake of losses to the USA and India, Pakistan will have one more day in America. With Pakistan’s central contracts up for review at the end of this month, PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi is in an unbeatable position and is anticipated to make the necessary modifications in the coming weeks. Another loss will not improve the situation in any way, but Babar Azam’s team is powerless to alter the atmosphere at home.
Ireland has also had a dismal campaign, particularly considering how optimistic the lead-up was. triumph in a T20 tri-nation series in the Netherlands and a victory against Pakistan at home. Crumpling on a terrible pitch against India in New York, however, was the low point of a gloomy campaign that culminated in a defeat versus Canada. All that’s left now is the possibility that they can complete their celebration in the USA on a high note, even if their prospects of qualifying were theoretically still alive when Lauderhill’s weather ruined their match against the hosts.
Imad Wasim’s international career is likely coming to an end with this match. He was controversially reinstated to the team, but he hasn’t delivered the star power Pakistan had hoped for when they convinced him to come out of retirement.
After Pakistan’s early T20 World Cup elimination, his pre-tournament assertion that “no one remembers semi-finalists and finalists, people remember champions” has aged like milk. Still, the best comfort he can hope for at this stage is a memorable match as he bids farewell.
Lorcan Tucker last month made two half-centuries in three matches against Pakistan. He then went on to make forty and fifty-five in the tri-series against Scotland and the Netherlands. Since then, he has not scored any more runs as Ireland’s T20 World Cup campaign imploded before it could begin.
Tucker has a chance to regain the form he showed against Pakistan a few weeks ago, with little to lose and no pressure.