Salman Ali Agha: Pakistan’s New T20 Captain for the New Zealand Tour

Shadab Khan was initially selected for Pakistan's T20I captaincy for the New Zealand tour, but the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) decided to go with Salman Ali Agha instead of him. While Shadab didn’t get the most crucial role, but he was appointed as vice-captain for the series. Pakistan ended up losing the five-match T20I series 1-4.
As per a report from Pakistan Cricket , the PCB had thought about making Shadab the captain but chose not to. Shadab has previous leadership experience in the Pakistan Super League (PSL), where he captained Islamabad United to a title win last year. He performed well with both bat and ball, playing a key role in the victory and earning the Player of the Tournament award.

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The PCB decided not to appoint Shadab Khan as captain after discussions with the selectors. Before finalizing the squad for the New Zealand tour, the board consulted five mentors Sarfaraz Ahmed, Saqlain Mushtaq, Waqar Younis, Misbah-ul-Haq, and Shoaib Malik. These mentors had earlier been criticized for their supposed role in picking Pakistan’s squad for the Champions Trophy, where the team was knocked out in the group stage. However, they later clarified that they were not involved in the final selection.

🚨PCB REJECTED SHADAB KHAN'S CAPTAINCY PROPOSAL🚨

- Shadab Khan was considered for the T20I captaincy during Pakistan's tour of New Zealand, but PCB rejected the proposal, prioritizing new players for the T20 WC 2026. Salman Ali Agha was appointed as captain. [Cricket Pakistan] pic.twitter.com/NpI9puZ3nx

— Salman (@SalmanAsif2007) April 1, 2025

 

With the T20 World Cup coming up next year, the PCB wanted to try out new players, which is why Salman Ali Agha was given the captaincy. Agha had been one of Pakistan’s most reliable batsmen and was in great form. He ended up as the team’s highest run-scorer in the series, making 167 runs in five matches at an average of 41.75 and a strike rate of 135.77.

On the other hand, Shadab Khan had a rough series. He scored only 58 runs and took just one wicket while conceding runs at an economy of 11 per over. Despite the recent losses, the PCB is still focused on giving young players a chance and encouraging a more aggressive style of cricket.

This Champions Trophy would be most heart breaking for Pakistan and their Cricket Team, As they were hosting the Champions Trophy. But after 4 days of its happening they were out of the tournament. Pakistan played their first match against New Zealand where they lost their first encounter. They lost their second match against their arch rival India with that loss they were completely out from Champions Trophy. 

They had their mere thinner chance but rain spoiled their third game. There were enough backlash from people to their team. Addressing the team selection, change of coaching staffs, playing with same type of players in the team and PCB runs with a recomondation quota and so on. Now with their early exit and hefty loss. PCB has taken strict actions to improve on players fitness and quality. 

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Complete Revamp Of The Team

First and foremost PCB is going to terminate the contract of Aquib Javed who was appointed as caretaker of the Pakistan team after Gary Kiersten was sacked from the position.  Even the red ball tenure was also given to him when Jason Gillespie resigned from his post, under his guidance Pakistan beat England 2-1 which ultimately cemented him. 

But the recent depature in CT will change everything. Even it will be hard for the board to acquire new coaches as of frequent changes, There will be a revamp for players like Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, Saheen Afridi who can be sidelined from the team for a while to give chance to upcoming players who are waiting for their chance. 

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Salman Ali Aga Becomes The New T20 Captain

PCB has shuffled its approach and taken a chance to revamp the team. Soon Pakistan going to play against New Zealand for 5 5-match T20 series and 3 3-match ODI series. For the ODI series Mohammad Rizwan is once again attained as the captain but in T20 Salman Ali Aga has been announced as captain and Shadab Khan announced as vice-captain. In his recent press meet Salman Ali Aga addressed the gathering and said he is honoured that he will be leading the Pakistan side. 

Which is a new challenge for him, he urged that my task is to get players to play fearless and high-risk cricket,". He claimed that in that process they will face failures, T20 has developed more and in this era we have to play fearlessly, we need to play with a different mindset and selected players will not be dropped with certain failures. We have to develop the quality of players and have to give confidence to them. As the Asia Cup is nearing we are gearing up a player pool of 24-25 players so that there won't be any difficulty shortly. 

Pakistan all-rounder Shadab Khan has asked for continuity in the team’s
captaincy to achieve better results after reports came on Shaheen Afridi’s role as T20I skipper is going in jeopardy. However, Afridi took over the reins as Pakistan’s T20I captain at the end of last year after Babar Azam stepped down.

But, he didn’t have a good series as he led the side in the lone series against New Zealand, where they suffered a 1-4 defeat. After that, the Afridi-led Lahore Qalandars faced a last-place finish in the ongoing 2024 PSL, winning only one of their ten games.

Shadab Khan backs Shaheen Afridi

While speaking at the post-match press conference after Islamabad United’s
win to advance to the grand finale, their captain Shadab Khan shared the complexities in Pakistan’s captaincy as well.

“Even now, look, we’ve given Shaheen a series, and we’re contemplating changing his captaincy. It shouldn’t be like this because in the long term, one should be given a chance to captain properly according to his process, his method. Because we want to experiment, win series as well, which could lead to issues,” said Shadab.

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However, Shaheen Afridi’s appointment as T20I captain came on the back of his successfully leading the Qalandars to back-to-back titles in 2022 and 2023 as well.
Pakistan’s next T20I assignment is a five-match series against New Zealand at home, followed by a four-match T20I series against England before the World
Cup in June as well.

“Whenever you bring someone in, things can’t change immediately” – Shadab Khan

However, Shadab Khan also requested adequate time for a new captain,
allowing him to learn rather than looking for immediate results as well. Before Afridi, Babar Azam led the T20I side, winning 42 of his 71 games as well. He also led the team in the semi-final and final of the 2021 and 2022 T20 World Cups.

“Whenever you bring someone in, things can’t change immediately. It takes time. We want many things to change immediately, but that’s not how it works; it’s a process. In this process, there are mostly failures in the beginning, and it’s important to see how we accept those failures. A captain has his own thought process, and right now, it’s unclear because discussions about changing the captain after just one series. With the World Cup, I think we need to identify players for the long run so that by the time we reach the World Cup, our issues are resolved,” he concluded.

Pakistan vice-captain Shadab Khan recently opened up on their performances ahead of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023. He shared a fun response when he was asked about whether Pakistani cricketers are having Hyderabadi biriyani. Shadab, who was the stand-in captain in the warm-up match against Australia in World Cup 2023, cheekily said that the Pakistani players have been slow because of consuming the popular Indian food item on a ‘daily’ basis as well.

“We are eating it daily, and perhaps that is why we are getting a bit slow (laughs),” Shadab was quoted as saying.

However, Pakistan will go into the World Cup after losing both their warm-up matches against New Zealand and the Australia as well. In both games, Pakistan managed to score more than 300 runs but failed to secure victory. Against the Aussies, they were bowled out for 337 in 47.4 overs while chasing a target of 352.

Babar Azam, Iftikhar Ahmed and Mohammad Nawaz scored 90, 83 and 50 respectively, but their efforts went in vain as others failed to contribute. Hasan Ali and Usama Mir tried their best before Marnus Labuschagne removed the former to seal the deal as well.

“Our attitude was good, result not in our hands” – Shadab Khan

However, Shadab wasn’t worried after they ended up on the losing side. He was happy with the ‘attitude’ of the players in the games as well.

“Result is not important. We took a lot of positives. Our attitude was good, result not in our hands. I think our 11 is sorted, we just wanted to give time to the bench to show their skills. When you play against Australia and New Zealand, you get confidence. We got a little bit experience of conditions [in Hyderabad],” he further added.

Pakistan will play their opening match against Scott Edwards’ Netherlands on Friday, October 6 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad.

Shadab Khan, Pakistan’s stand-in skipper and all-rounder, believes that his team’s series loss to Afghanistan will have a lot of positive effects. He also believes that the consistent efforts of experienced absentees Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan will be appreciated more when they return to the national setup.

At Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Sunday, Afghanistan stunned Pakistan by winning for the second time and winning the three-match T20I series

A number of players with fewer experience and credentials were given a chance to shine in the absence of the ultra-reliable top-order pair, so Babar and Rizwan were rested for the three-game series against Afghanistan in Sharjah.

Afghanistan won their first series victory over their Asian rival with a thrilling seven-wicket victory over Pakistan on Sunday despite the results of the first two games not going according to plan.

During Pakistan’s first two matches against Afghanistan, Babar and Rizwan’s usual stability early in the innings has been lacking, and Shadab believes that too many people take the performances of the experienced duo for granted.

“People criticise Babar and Rizwan regardless of whether they perform or not. There is always a sword hanging over them of strike rate. As a nation, we wanted youngsters to come in international cricket, as they were performing in PSL (Pakistan Super League), so we thought they would play with a better strike rate,”

Shadab said as quoted by ICC after the match.

“But finally, our nation will realise that experience matters and our seniors did not get the respect they deserved considering their performances. So after this series, they will get a lot more respect from the media and the nation,”

added Shadab.

In Sunday’s match, Pakistan made a meager 130/6 from 20 overs and lost three wickets in the first four overs. They were always on the back foot. Pakistan were able to reach this modest total thanks to the contributions of Shadab (32 off 25 balls with three fours) and Imad Wasim (64* off 57 balls with three fours and two sixes). After Pakistan was reduced to 63/5, the two of them put together a 67-run stand for the sixth wicket.

Afghanistan’s pick of the bowlers was Fazalhaq Farooqi (2/19). Karim Janat, Rashid Khan, and Naveen-ul-Haq each received one loss.

Shadab was left to wonder what might have been if his team had been able to post a slightly larger total as Afghanistan pursued that victory target with just one delivery remaining. Both Ibrahim Zadran (38 off 40 balls with three fours) and Rahmanullah Gurbaz (44 off 49 balls with two fours and a six) made notable contributions for Afghanistan.

For Pakistan, Zaman Khan and Insanullah each took a wicket.

“When you lose three wickets in powerplay, you lose 70 per cent of the games…the young players were nervous. They are playing for the first time for Pakistan, but we have to back them. Our motive for this series was to check out talented young players and we have to back them in the future,”

concluded Shadab.

With Pakistan trailing by 2-0 in the series, the third and final Twenty20 International will be played in Sharjah on Monday. They had fallen six wickets short in the first match.