Shahid Afridi, a former captain of Pakistan, has voiced his displeasure with Salman Ali Agha and his team’s performance in the current Asia Cup 2025. Afridi believes that Pakistan shouldn’t have removed Muhammad Rizwan and Babar Azam from the T20I squad if this calibre of play is acceptable.
Mike Hesson, the head coach of Pakistan, has publicly reprimanded Babar and Rizwan’s strike rates and urged them to hit more boundaries, especially while facing spin.
Agha has frequently stressed the need to play a more “aggressive brand of cricket,” but the Asia Cup hasn’t seen much of that. His own performances have also fallen short. Saim Ayub, Hasan Nawaz, Hussain Talat, Sahibzada Farhan, and Fakhar Zaman have all kept their strike rates below 120.
If this is how you intended to play, Babar and Rizwan should have been on the team as well. “Agar isse Tarah khelna hai toh Babar ko bhi hona chahiye tha, Rizwan ko bhi hona chahiye tha.” Speaking to a journalist in Pakistan, Afridi stated, “This is Pakistan cricket’s problem: when they are around, they are taken for granted,” according to News18.
Additionally, Afridi believes that Pakistan is missing Naseem Shah, who could have played a key role in Dubai.
I missed Naseem Shah a lot. “Naseem Shah ko Maine bahut miss kiya, jiss Tarah se condition thi, mere saath me shaheen ke saath Naseem ka pair outstanding perform karta.” He and Shaheen, in my opinion, would have made a fantastic duo.
“The team is not performing at the level they should. You can defeat Oman and Sri Lanka, but you must excel in all three areas when playing India in the final.
In the Asia Cup 2025, Pakistan has already lost twice against India, but they have won every other game. They put up a fight in the Super Fours stage, despite losing badly to India in their initial match.
Despite a 105-run opening partnership between Abhishek Sharma and Shubman Gill in just 9.5 overs, Pakistan forced India deep into the match with a score of 171/5 in their 20 overs, advancing the match to the penultimate over.
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