Pakistan wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Shayan was on Friday ruled out of the ongoing U19 World Cup, two days before the team was supposed to take on arch-rivals India in the final Super Six game of the coveted tournament. The 18-year-old from Mardan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was in action against New Zealand in Pakistan’s last game.
Shayan was struck on the nose by a delivery while wicketkeeping to a pacer during a scenario-based practice game.
Shayan was taken to the hospital, where scans confirmed a fracture. A replacement for him will be named in due course, a statement from the Pakistan Cricket Board said.
Notably, although Shayan is a wicketkeeper, opener Hamza Zahoor is the designated one and hence, Pakistan would not need a quick replacement
for the big clash and the upcoming stages of the tournament.
Pakistan began their campaign against England at the U19 World Cup with a defeat, but have put up a strong show since then. They beat Scotland by six wickets, thrashed Zimbabwe and New Zealand by eight wickets and now face the biggest challenge yet, arch-rivals India.
India and Pakistan have faced each other on 10 occasions at the U19 World Cup, starting in 1988. Notably, the first match was lost by India, as the Arjan Kripal Singh-led team couldn’t chase down 198, with Zahoor Elahi picking four wickets.
India won the next encounter a decade later in 1998, but Pakistan came back stronger than ever to register four consecutive wins since then, in 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2010.
To India’s credit, they have never lost to arch-rivals Pakistan since then at the U19 World Cup. In 2012, Baba Aparajith starred in the win against Babar Azam’s team. In 2014, Sarfaraz Khan stepped up for India against Sami Aslam’s Pakistan.
India’s current Test and ODI captain, Shubman Gill, and Yashasvi Jaiswal were the stars in the 2016 and 2020 editions of the tournament against Pakistan.
