Poised Sidra Amin buckles up for her maiden Australia tour

Sidra Amin, Pakistan’s opening batswoman, is upbeat as she prepares for a difficult limited-overs series against Australia that starts with the first ODI on January 16 in Brisbane.
Three ODIs and three T20Is make up Pakistan’s tour. The ICC Women’s Championship 2022–25 includes the three ODIs.
With five victories out of six games played in the ICC Women’s Championship, Pakistan comes into the ODI series in strong shape. In June of previous year, they defeated Sri Lanka 2-1 in Karachi, and in November, they defeated Ireland 3-0 in Lahore.
With a staggering total of 495 runs in six games, Sidra is leading the ICC Women’s Championship batting standings.
With three hundreds and two half-centuries, she has 653 runs scored in her previous 10 innings. Sidra’s unbeaten 176 against Ireland in the opening ODI of the series in her birthplace of Lahore—the fifth-highest individual score in Women’s ODIs—was a defining moment in her batting prowess.
“I am here in Australia for the first time, the conditions here are different to Pakistan as the ball rises a bit and I am trying to acclimatise as quickly as possible,” the 30-year-old told PCB Digital that she is ready to maintain the momentum in 2023 and take on the challenge of scoring runs in the unfamiliar conditions of Australia, “We had our preparation camps in Lahore and Karachi where we played some practice games before coming to Australia.”
Sidra described the previous 12 months as exceptional when asked to think back on her supreme run the previous year. She asserted that her string of strong performances against various opponents would give her a lot of confidence going into the upcoming series, and she would be able to capitalise on it.
“As an opener it is a challenging job to face two new balls in ODI cricket, you have to see off the new ball and at the same time score runs and give a good start to the innings. Muneeba [Ali] and I will look to give a good start to the innings so the batters coming after us should have the momentum to take it forward,” she said.
She further noted, ” When you perform individually it helps your team, I will try to score runs which will ultimately benefit my team. The message from coach and captain is very simple, go out and play positive cricket, score runs for the team and help the team do well.”
“Everyone knows that Australia is a great side, playing against them is a good omen. It will help us to learn a lot,” Sidra concluded.

Pakistan ODI squad
Bismah Maroof (c), Aliya Riaz, Ayesha Naseem, Diana Baig, Fatima Sana, Kainat Imtiaz, Muneeba Ali (wk), Nashra Sandhu, Nida Dar, Omaima Sohail, Sadaf Shamas, Sadia Iqbal, Sidra Amin, Sidra Nawaz (wk) and Tuba Hassan.
Traveling Reserves: Aimen Anwar and Javeria Khan
Player Support staff: Ayesha Ashhar (team manager), Saleem Jaffer (bowling coach and interim head coach), Taufiq Umar (batting coach), Mauhtashim Rashid (fielding coach), Yasir Malik (strength and conditioning coach), Muhammad Zubair Ahmad (analyst), Syed Nazir Ahmed (media and digital content manager) and Rifat Gill (physiotherapist).

Schedule
16 January – 1st ODI at Allan Border Field, Brisbane
18 January – 2nd ODI at Allan Border Field, Brisbane
21 January – 3rd ODI at North Sydney Oval No.1, North Sydney
24 January – 1st T20I at North Sydney Oval No.1, North Sydney
26 January – 2nd T20I at Blundstone Arena, Hobart
29 January – 3rd T20I at Manuka Oval, Canberra