Salman Ali Agha has promised to deliver a brand of “fearless cricket” as he becomes the fourth different T20I captain for Pakistan since January 2024. Agha replaced Mohammad Rizwan as T20I captain for the upcoming white-ball tour to New Zealand, the latest in a revolving door of captains that has seen Shaheen Shah Afridi and Babar Azam come and go before him.
Pakistan’s results have remained poor, highlighted by a group stage exit at the T20 World Cup last year in which they lost to the USA. That has prompted a wholesale change in the squad, with a number of new faces and, significantly, the absence of a few older ones.
Chief among them are Rizwan and Babar, whose batting at the top of the order has widely been seen to be a root cause for Pakistan’s outdated, risk-averse batting approach. While the door has not been permanently shut on them in the format, it is clear they have been dropped, not rested.
“It’s an honour for me and also a challenge,” Agha said at a press conference in…