Pakistan all-rounder Nida Dar has told selectors she is ready to play international cricket again, ending a 14-month break taken to look after her mental health.
“After taking time to focus on myself and regain my strength, I am happy to share that I am back and available for Pakistan Cricket Team once again,” she wrote on X. “Ready to give my best, work hard and contribute whenever the team needs me. Thank you to everyone who supported me during this journey.”
The 39-year-old last appeared for Pakistan in October 2024, when New Zealand beat them by 54 runs in the T20 World Cup. A dip in form, plus questions over fitness, meant she was left out of subsequent squads and did not receive a central contract.
Numbers, though, still lean in her favour. Dar was the first Pakistani – male or female – to pass 100 T20 international wickets and remains top of the national list with 144. With the bat she has 2,091 T20I runs, second only to Bismah Maroof, and in one-day cricket she sits third on Pakistan’s wicket chart with an even 100. Eleven ODI fifties add weight to her case as a genuine all-rounder.
Pakistan’s women are currently midway through the T20 World Cup in England. Heavy defeat to India was followed by a tighter, two-wicket loss to South Africa on Wednesday, leaving qualification hopes hanging by a thread before Saturday’s meeting with Bangladesh in Southampton. The squad cannot be changed mid-tournament, yet Dar’s announcement inevitably shifts attention to the bilateral series that follow.
Selectors, coaches and team-mates have stayed quiet publicly, preferring to focus on the tournament at hand. Privately, the talk is that experience – Dar has played 286 white-ball internationals – will be hard to ignore once fresh squads are picked.
At 39, her return will raise familiar questions about planning for the future, but Pakistan’s women’s cricket has not yet reached the point where 100-plus T20I wickets and 2,000-odd runs can be shrugged off. If Dar proves her fitness, a recall feels more likely than not.
