Pakistan captain Salman Ali Agha on Monday said the team would stick to its aggressive style of play till the upcoming ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 in India and Sri Lanka in February-March 2026.
After a string of below-par performances in the shortest format stemming from their dismal T20 World Cup 2024 campaign, the Green Shirts changed their strategy to catch up with the fast-paced nature of modern cricket, with Agha named Pakistan’s captain, followed by the ousting of senior players such as Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan.
The new strategy yielded mixed results for Pakistan as they won 17 out of 29 matches under Agha’s captaincy.
Pakistan’s last appearance in the format came at the ACC Men’s T20 Asia Cup 2025, where they lost to arch-rivals India thrice, including the final. The heartbreak of the continental tournament forced Pakistan to make adjustments to their player pool, bringing in the experienced duo of Babar and Naseem Shah.
The return of the experienced players, who were considered to have fallen out of favour, gave rise to the speculations of a shift in Pakistan’s ‘strategy’ for the T20Is, but Agha, while addressing the pre-series press conference here at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, categorically dismissed them.
The Pakistan captain stressed that the team will stick to their existing strategy which is to play according to the conditions and according to the par scores of each venue.
“As I said earlier, our strategy is to analyze the statistics of every course we play at [when we bat] we try to break the par score. It is still the same strategy and it will continue until the T20 World Cup,” Agha told reporters on the eve of their three-match home T20I series against South Africa.
“So we just have to look at the par score of a venue and try to score about 15 runs more than that so that our bowling attack can take advantage of that. Similarly, when we bowl first, we try to bowl the opposition under par score to support our batting unit,” he explained.
It is pertinent to mention that Pakistan will strengthen their preparations for next year’s T20 World Cup with a three-match home series against South Africa scheduled to get underway here on Tuesday.
However, the remaining two matches of the series will be played at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on October 31 and November 1 respectively.
Pakistan squad for South Africa T20Is
Salman Ali Agha (c), Abdul Samad, Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Nawaz, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Mohammad Salman Mirza, Naseem Shah, Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Usman Khan Tariq.
