Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) named new T20I captain Salman Ali Agha for their upcoming white ball series against New Zealand which is scheduled to start from March 16. PCB dropped veteran cricketer Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam from the T20I squad after their flop show in ICC Champions Trophy 2025.
After becoming the captain, Agha promised a new approach in the shortest format of the game, saying that his team will play fearless cricket in the upcoming tournaments.
“I am honoured to be Pakistan captain but it is also a challenge for me. We have mostly picked youngsters in the T20 squad. My task is to get players to play fearless and high risk cricket," he said after his appointment.
Agha admitted that Pakistan will obviously face failures but he will support the players so they will play fearlessly.
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"We will obviously face failures but we all need to support these players. They would be told to play freely. Nowadays there is no other option in the T20 format than to play fearless cricket.”
He said there was a need to play with a different mindset in T20s and the selected players will be assured they will not be dropped even if they face some failures.
“Having Shadab Khan as vice captain will also be good as he and I think with the same aggressive mindset and we will collectively try to groom attacking players.”
Pakistan are scheduled to play a five-match T20I series against New Zealand, which is scheduled to start from March 16.
Pakistan T20I squad against New Zealand
Salman Ali Agha (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Abdul Samad, Abrar Ahmed, Haris Rauf, Hasan Nawaz, Jahandad Khan, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Haris, Muhammad Irfan Khan, Omair Bin Yousaf, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Sufyan Moqim and Usman Khan
