Shoaib Malik keen to continue until World T20 2020

Pakistan’s Shoaib Malik has reiterated his commitment to playing till the ICC World T20 2020 before calling it quits. 

The 36-year-old all-rounder, who in March became the first Pakistan player to feature in 300 T20s, has set his sights on both the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 in England and Wales, and the premier T20 event in Australia the following year.

“The 2019 World Cup, 50-over cricket, is my last World Cup, but I want to play in the World T20 in 2020. That is my goal for Twenty20 cricket,” Malik said.

“These are the two big goals which I’m looking at, let’s see how it goes. If I’m consistently performing, then I want to play these two World Cups.”

If Malik does feature in the 50-over World Cup, he and Pakistan will be keen to repeat the success of the World T20 2009 as well as the ICC Champions Trophy 2017, both campaigns in England which Malik was a part of.

He has also been named in the Eoin Morgan-led ICC World XI that will take on the Windies at Lord’s on 31 May in the Hurricane Relief T20 Challenge. That contest will only extend Malik’s association with cricket in the Caribbean. Given his 7728 runs at a strike rate of 124.32, and 132 wickets from 306 T20s, he is a popular pick in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL).

Yesterday, CPL announced that Malik had been picked up by the Guyana Amazon Warriors for the next edition of the tournament after five years with the Barbados Tridents.

“No matter what island you’re playing in, if you look at the people from the Caribbean, they’re loving people and they’re very entertaining. It’s so much fun being in and playing in the Caribbean, not just in the CPL or if you’re playing any international series there,” he said. “I’ve been playing there for the last five years for Barbados Tridents. I had so much fun in Barbados. Guyana is more like you’re playing in the sub-continent, I think. But, on that particular day, performance is the key of any cricketer and that’s what I’m looking for.”