Nida Dar calls on Australia Women to tour Pakistan

Australia's men's side is currently involved in a three-Test series – the first of which is ongoing at Rawalpindi – to be followed by three ODIs and a one-off T20I

Pakistan spinner Nida Dar has called for Australia Women to follow in the footsteps of Pat Cummins' charges and tour the country.

The two teams have hardly ever faced one another, with just 22 clashes across both white-ball formats since 1997; Australia have won every single encounter but have never played in Pakistan.

The men's side is currently involved in a landmark three-Test series – the first of which is ongoing at Rawalpindi – to be followed by three ODIs and a one-off T20I. It is their first trip to the country for 24 years.

"Of course," said Dar, who has previously turned out in the Women's Big Bash. "After [the] men's touring Pakistan, we're expecting [the] women's [team] also to go to Pakistan, it's a lovely ground there and Australia must come to play there."

Australia were among the first countries to face Pakistan after their women's team was officially recognised by the ICC in 1997. Belinda Clark and Lisa Keightley both made centuries in a 374-run rout that remains the second-highest margin of victory in women's ODI history; Pakistan could only field 10 players. The only bigger defeat came a week earlier in Pakistan's inaugural 50-over international against New Zealand.

While Pakistan remain underdogs coming into this tournament – they were roundly beaten by India in their competition opener, albeit having inflicted a scare on their rivals' top order – the last 25 years have at least displayed significant progress.

"When I started, it was like 25 to 30 girls in Pakistan who were playing at that time," Dar explained. "So, if we compare it from then and now, of course, the girls are very interested in Pakistan and especially they want to play cricket, and we inspired them a lot.

"So now [there is] a lot of cricket in Pakistan for girls and a lot of facilities that PCB gave – a lot of chances for the girls. Now we're watching a lot of girls playing cricket and especially in domestic from districts, from regions."

^{Babar Azam and Pat Cummins bump fists ahead of Australia's first Test on Pakistani soil in 24 years (Aamir Qureshi/AFP via Getty Images)}

As part of their pre-tournament preparation, Pakistan held a training camp in Karachi on pitches that Dar believes will have similar qualities to the Bay Oval surface waiting for them when they face Australia.

It will be the third time that the pitch has been used in the competition, which might bring Pakistan's pack of spinners into the game, Dar included. Australia have also practised for these conditions, facing New Zealand in three ODIs last April, all of which were played on the same pitch.

"When we got to the third game, it had slowed up quite a lot," said Australia batter Beth Mooney. "So, using that intel that we had from last year when we played will become really handy for us as a batting unit and a bowling unit."

She added: "Their spinners especially bowl quite differently to ours in terms of pace through the air. We had a session today, specifically on that as a top six and hopefully we can use that to our advantage tomorrow."