Bismah Maroof recently stepped down from her role as the Pakistan Women’s team captain. Her last assignment as the national side captain was the 2023 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in South Africa, where they won only one game out of four and failed to qualify for the next round.

We will look into Bismah Maroof’s career as captain and why she has been Pakistan Women’s most successful captain of all time.

A brief look at achievements under Bismah Maroof

Bismah was appointed Pakistan Women’s team leader for both formats in September 2017. Her first assignment was the New Zealand series which was played in the UAE. While the series was lost 2-1, she led her side to their first win over New Zealand women in an ODI match.

Later in March 2018, she had her first series wins in both ODI and T20I formats over the Sri Lankan side.

In 2019, Maroof led her side to a win over South Africa in an ODI match. This was the first time that PAK-W had beaten SA-W in an ODI game. The series was tied 1-1 with the third match ending in a thrilling tie. 

She led her team in the 2022 Women’s Asia Cup where they came second in the league pool, jointly tied on points with India but below on Net Run Rate. They won five out of six games, including a fine victory over their arch-rivals. The only loss PAK-W suffered was a shocking defeat by Thailand. PAK-W were defeated by Sri Lanka-W in the semi-final, eventually ending as a third-best team.

Perhaps the closest ODI World Cup Pakistan Women ever had was the 2022 Women’s World Cup. While they may have won only one game out of seven, there were a couple of games that they could have won but failed. They lost to South Africa by six runs and to Bangladesh by nine. Had they won, it would have easily been the best campaign in their ODI World Cup history. They won over the West Indies, their first World Cup match win in 13 years.

Also Read: Why Pakistan Women Cricket is hindered than other Countries?

Bismah Maroof – Most successful captain

Bismah is easily the most successful captain of the national team. She led PAK-W to 34 ODI games, winning 16 and losing as many. In T20Is, she led them to 62 games, winning 27 and losing 32. In terms of win percentage, it is the best among all the women’s captains (with a minimum of 10 matches). 

ODI Captains	Pld	W	L	Tied/NR	W/L Ratio	Win %
Shazia Khan	39	7	32	0/0	0.219	17.94
Sadia Butt	1	1	0	0/0	1.000	100
Sana Javed	4	0	4	0/0	0.000	0.00
Urooj Mumtaz	26	4	21	0/1	0.190	16.00
Sana Mir	72	26	45	0/1	0.578	36.61
Bismah Maroof	34	16	16	1/1	1.000	50.00
Javeria Khan	17	3	14	0/0	0.214	17.64
Sidra Nawaz	1	0	1	0/0	0.000	0.00

While she may have fewer ODI wins (16) as compared to her predecessor, Sana Mir (26), Bismah’s win/loss ratio and win percentage are the best among all captains (keeping the qualification of leading at least 10 matches in mind).

T20I Captains	Pld	W	L	Tied/NR	W/L Ratio	Win %
Sana Mir	65	26	36	2/1	0.722	42.18
Sania Khan	2	1	1	0/0	1.000	50.00
Bismah Maroof	62	27	32	1/2	0.843	45.83
Javeria Khan	16	5	10	0/1	0.500	33.33
Aliya Riaz	2	0	2	0/0	0.000	0.00
Nida Dar	1	0	1	0/0	0.000	0.00

Bismah Maroof’s record as a batter

When a player is made the skipper of a side, there are questions about whether the player would be able to handle the captaincy pressure and not let it affect the batting. That was not the case with Bismah as she topped that chart in both the women’s ODI and T20Is list.

ODI Captains	Matches	Runs	Average	50s
Shazia Khan	39	382	11.23	0
Sadia Butt	1	2	2.00	0
Sana Javed	4	42	10.50	0
Urooj Mumtaz	26	393	17.08	1
Sana Mir	72	1069	19.43	3
Bismah Maroof	34	1108	44.32	8
Javeria Khan	17	270	15.28	0
Sidra Nawaz	1	23	23.00	0

There is clear daylight between her and other skippers of the women’s side. The highest run scorer is the skipper with the best average and the most number of the fifties in the above table. While in her run, she also became the most run-getter in the WODI for her country.

T20I Captains	Matches	Runs	Average	50s
Sana Mir	65	614	14.61	0
Sania Khan	2	7	–	0
Bismah Maroof	62	1310	27.29	7
Javeria Khan	16	377	31.41	2
Aliya Riaz	2	40	20.00	0
Nida Dar	1	11	11.00	0

Even in the T20Is, Bismah did very well in her role as captain-cum-batter with her again being the top-scorer in runs and has the most number of fifties in the shortest format.

Bismah Maroof has been an inspiration for young girls in Pakistan. She will be remembered as one of the finest captains of the Pakistan Women’s Team in the future. From the Green Team, we wish her the best of luck in the future.

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