Pakistan's top slot in the ICC T20 International Rankings in danger
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LAHORE – Pakistan's top slot in the ICC T20 International Rankings in danger.
Bangladesh on Friday have won the toss and elected to bat against Pakistan in first Twenty20 that is being played at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.
If the host team lose just one of the three matches scheduled they will slide to second behind England or India in the rankings after holding the top spot since January 2018.
But they also want to show the security situation has improved enough for the team to start regularly hosting home internationals.
Following an attack in 2009 by militants on a convoy ferrying the Sri Lanka team to a fixture in Lahore, Pakistan became a wilderness for the national side who had to play home fixtures in the Middle East. That ended in December when Sri Lanka returned to give Pakistan their first home series in a decade.
The first priority for skipper Babar Azam is to stay top of the world in the shortest international version of the game. "The focus is to continue the number one ranking," said Babar on Thursday. "We can hang on to that only if we win all three matches, so its a do-or-die situation and we have planned for that," he told a press conference.
Pakistan s rise started in 2016 under Sarfaraz Ahmed as they won eleven consecutive Twenty20 series -- before losing three on the trot.
