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RAWALPINDI: Pakistan T20I captain Salman Ali Agha has revealed the reason behind the selection of wicket-keeper batter Usman Khan in the national team for the three-match T20I series against South Africa.
The first T20I match will begin tomorrow at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium.
Usman Khan, who averages 14.93 with the bat in 19 T20Is, last appeared in the format against New Zealand on March 26, 2025.
Speaking ahead of the opening T20I, Salman shed light on the inclusion of Usman, mentioning the batting in the middle orders. He also emphasized his record in the Pakistan Super League (PSL).
“We wanted a keeper who could bat in the middle order and handle the middle overs, particularly against spin. We think that since we’re going to Sri Lanka soon, and even before that, we’ll face a lot of spin in the middle overs,” he said.
“And you can say, you must have seen in the PSL [Pakistan Super League], his international record isn’t that great, but in the PSL, he bats really well against spin in the middle overs.”
Regarding the team’s momentum, the skipper highlighted the Asia Cup 2025 and tri-nation series, noting that they have learned valuable lessons from their mistakes.
“We’ll continue from where our journey left off. We learned a lot from the Asia Cup and the tri-nation series before that. We’ve picked up a lot from those games. We’ll try to fix the mistakes we made and work on overcoming them in the upcoming series, keeping our World Cup preparation on point,” Salman explained.
“We need to quickly cut down on our mistakes, especially the ones that keep happening again and again, because they shouldn’t be happening,” he continued.
The 31-year-old mentioned modern-day cricket and emphasized that they do not aim for high scores, but rather evaluate the situation at hand.
“Cricket has definitely gotten faster, but as you saw, we just came back from the Asia Cup, and those pitches didn’t really favor scores of 180 or 190. We don’t blindly aim for 180 or 190; we look at the situation,” Salman concluded.
READ: ‘We can beat any side’: Salman Ali Agha confident ahead of South Africa series
