Agha admits Pakistan ‘underperformed’ after T20 World Cup exit

Pakistan captain Salman Agha conceded his side “underperformed” throughout the T20 World Cup after their campaign ended despite a narrow five-run victory over Sri Lanka in Colombo.

Pakistan needed a 65-run win to leapfrog New Zealand into the semi-finals. After posting 212, they had to restrict Sri Lanka to 147 or fewer. Although they held on for victory, they fell well short of the required margin as Sri Lanka’s captain Dasun Shanaka launched a late assault that nearly snatched the game outright.

“If you look at the whole tournament and I had to sum it up, we underperformed,” Agha said at the post-match press conference. “Our middle order never performed, and we over-relied on Sahibzada Farhan for our runs.”

Farhan was the standout performer for Pakistan, finishing as the tournament’s leading run-scorer with 383 runs, surpassing Virat Kohli’s record for most runs in a single T20 World Cup edition. However, the lack of support from the rest of the batting order proved costly. Shadab Khan was the next highest scorer with just 118 runs in six innings.

Saturday’s match at Pallekele highlighted those issues. Pakistan’s opening pair of Farhan and Fakhar Zaman — promoted to open after sitting out the group stage — put on 176 runs. But a dramatic collapse followed, with eight wickets falling for 34 runs in four overs. No batter apart from the openers reached double figures. Agha himself was dismissed for a two-ball duck and later admitted it was difficult for new batters to accelerate on that surface.

Team selection also drew scrutiny. The continued inclusion of an out-of-form Babar Azam in the middle order raised questions, as did the dropping of Abrar Ahmed after a poor outing against India. Ironically, Abrar responded with 3 for 23 in his four overs against Sri Lanka, emerging as Pakistan’s most effective bowler on the night.

“We take responsibility,” Agha said. “We look at conditions and the situation before selecting our playing XI as captain and coach together. I take responsibility, as does the coach. We will have to improve our decision-making under pressure.”

He acknowledged that high-pressure moments have repeatedly exposed shortcomings in Pakistan’s game management, particularly in ICC tournaments. Pakistan conceded 100 runs in the final seven overs against Sri Lanka, including 40 in the last two, after scoring only 35 in their own final four overs — lapses that ultimately proved decisive in their elimination.

“In the 20-over innings with the bat, we played 18 overs very well. The other team is allowed to play two overs well. But our execution in the last three overs with the ball was not good,” Agha said. “We’re a better bowling unit than this. Our execution was missing.”

The defeat marked Pakistan’s fourth consecutive ICC men’s tournament exit before the semi-finals. Agha, who recently completed his 50th T20I as captain, stopped short of making any immediate decisions about his future, saying he would not take any “emotional” calls.

For much of the tournament, Agha experimented with batting at No. 3 but struggled for consistency, scoring just 60 runs in six innings. Reflecting on the campaign, he stressed the need for sharper thinking in crunch moments.

“When the pressure is on, how we improve our decision-making matters,” he said. “Whenever we are under pressure, our decision-making is not as good as it should be. And that’s why we get the results we get.”