Pakistan may only be playing for pride in their final two ICC Women’s World Cup 2026 fixtures but Muneeba Ali remains confident they can compete against unbeaten Australia.
Muneeba’s dismissal for 25 against Bangladesh came during a collapse, which saw Pakistan (ICC T20I ranking: 8) fall from 58 for one to 84 for eight in a match they ultimately lost by 23 runs.
That ended any chances of progression to the knockout phase but Muneeba and her teammates are looking to show they have learned from previous mistakes.
“In the last game when I was settled in, I should probably have finished that match,” she reflected.
“But unfortunately, when wickets start to fall, we have lost a cluster of wickets in the last three games, so that is the main thing we need to rectify.
“We must identify what we were doing in those situations. Are we not taking good decisions mentally in those pressure times? That is what we have talked about and we will try to rectify those things.
“Every match is a new opportunity for every batter to come again, start from zero and make a good impact for your team and make a match winning contribution.
“That is also my main focus, because I have contributed but not contributed in a way that ensures the team wins, so that will be my goal.”
Pakistan gave Australia a scare at the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025, reducing a star-studded batting line-up to 75 for seven before Beth Mooney’s century lifted her side to 221 for nine and a 107-run victory.
The shorter format this time around, however, means a similar performance with the ball could result in a different outcome.
“T20 is such a format that any team can do anything on any day,” Muneeba added.
“You need one good spell and a good partnership and you can take the match to any side.
“Australia are a good side so we expect they will come at us hard, but I think we should plan differently for every team we play. We will approach our batting and bowling with different planning.
“In the last World Cup, we managed to take early wickets of Australian side, but those were different conditions, different surfaces.
“We’re here with different surfaces, different demands and a different format, so we will try, but we have confidence from that match that we can do good things against them.
“We will try to make positive decisions in our batting and bowling so that we can close the match on a winning side.”
Australia, the top-ranked women’s T20I side in the world, are bidding for a fourth consecutive victory but are set to be without Phoebe Litchfield, who coach Shelley Nitschke hopes will return for their final group match against India.
Nitschke also heaped praise on Pakistan captain Fatima Sana, who impressed with an unbeaten 55 against South Africa earlier in the competition.
“She's been outstanding,” Nitschke said. “Since she's stepped into the captaincy role, she's sort of really grown as an allrounder and one of the world's best at T20 cricket among allrounders.
“We certainly know that she's the sort of player we need to be well planned for and be able to execute against her because she's showing that she can take a game away from a team.”
Georgia Wareham is playing a similarly influential role for the six-time champions with bat and ball so far. Only two batters have a superior strike rate to her 182.50 while her leg-breaks have brought her four wickets at 7.75, all while going at under five runs an over.
“I don't think it’s probably surprising to any of us that see Wolfie go about her work day in, day out,” Nitschke said.
“She's probably been threatening with the bat for a long time. We all know what she's capable of. She's had a really good sort of 12 months and she's playing a really critical role there for us through the middle.”