Pakistan captain opens up about wanting to be an \u201call-format player\u201d, his role at Islamabad and how he reinvented himself in T20 cricket
\n Islamabad
\nSalman Agha laughs drily, as one sometimes does when nothing is amusing about what they just heard. Perhaps starting off by asking him while he\u2019s dressed in Islamabad United\u2019s kit if T20 cricket is his least natural format isn\u2019t the best way to break the ice.
\n\u201cThis is just something that people say,\u201d he says coolly. \u201cI can\u2019t influence that. I feel I can play all three formats and don\u2019t focus on what people say.\u201d
\nThe ice remains unbroken. He is, after all, speaking the day after an unbeaten 34-ball 41 in the opening game of the PSL 2025, showing his range as a batter in this format. He came in on a slow pitch as Lahore Qalandars prowled, but gritted his way through early jitters alongside Colin Munro before the pair helped United romp to victory. This ability to do what needs to be done comes so naturally to Salman so he wonders how can a charge of unsuitability to a format that rewards such problem-solving stand?
\nBut then again, it is easy to become captive to the moment, and hard to comprehend how much things have changed. Salman may have emerged as United\u2019s canniest pick last year when they sprung for him in the Silver category, primarily because there was little tangible data to back him. His career T20 strike rate across 63 matches was under 112, and his numbers in the PSL, before he joined United in 2024, were even more ordinary: 99.5 at an average a shade over 15. The previous two seasons, he\u2019d gone unpicked at the PSL altogether; he\u2019d never played a T20I and his last T20 of any sorts came in September 2022.
\nStuck in at No. 3, Salman was not so much a player reinvented as one incarnated afresh. He caressed his way to an unbeaten 31-ball 64 in his first game at United, his highest innings strike rate in his career. He would show it was more than a one-off, finishing as United\u2019s second-highest scorer last year, with 310 at 140.27. By the end of the month, he had lifted the PSL trophy.
\n\u201cThe two to three seasons I didn\u2019t play in the PSL taught me a lot,\u201d Salman tells ESPNcricinfo. \u201cI watched it on TV and picked up a few things. I knew if I got another opportunity, I would know what to work on and what to improve.
\n\u201cThe first thing was game awareness. Sometimes in T20 cricket, you think you have very little time, but you have a lot more time than you think. If you take the game deep, there\u2019s lots of time. I used to rush and force things. But now I\u2019ve realised that if I\u2019m chasing, there\u2019s enough time. Even if the asking rate is ten, I\u2019m calculating how to do it and what approach to take rather than trying to hit every ball.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pakistan captain opens up about wanting to be an \u201call-format player\u201d, his role at Islamabad and how he reinvented himself in T20 cricket Islamabad Salman Agha laughs drily, as one sometimes does when nothing is amusing about what they just heard. Perhaps starting off by asking him while he\u2019s dressed in Islamabad United\u2019s kit if […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473968,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-473958","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n