T20 World Cup 2024: Canada's Kaleem Sana sets sights on friend Babar Azam's wicket

Pakistan skipper Babar Azam has had a rough time in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024. He made 44 runs in 43 balls against USA and 13 against India, as the Men in Green lost both matches. Pakistan are currently on the verge of getting eliminated but there’s still some hope of them making it to Super 8. For that, the 2022 finalists will have to win their remaining matches by a huge margin and hope Ireland beats USA.

Pakistan will face Canada in their next match and ahead of that, pacer Kaleem Sana has expressed his desire to pick up the wickets of Babar and Mohammad Rizwan. Interestingly, Sana hails from Pakistan and is a friend of Babar. Both cricketers have played for seven years together before going their separate ways. Ahead of challenging Babar once again, Sana mentioned that since he is a new-ball bowler, he aims to pick up the wickets of the top order batters.

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“Since I bowl with the new ball, so my targets will (obviously) be Rizwan and Babar. Babar was in the rival team, while I played my last first-class match in Pakistan” Sana told Geo News.

Meanwhile, 2008 was the last time when Canada and Pakistan faced each other in the T20I circuit. Both teams don’t have enough information about each other, which can make this an interesting contest. Canada looked good with the bat in their match against USA and against Ireland, they made 137 runs, which is still the highest batting total at Nassau County International Cricket Stadium.

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Pakistan’s bowling unit looks strong but it won’t be an easy task for them, given the fact that the Canada batters have done well recently. Navneet Dhaliwal, Nicholas Kirton and Shreyas Movva have been key for them and can once again play a key role. For Pakistan to win, their batters will have to step up. In case Canada scores anything over 120, it would be difficult for Pakistan to pick up a win.