{"id":1152914,"date":"2026-01-28T22:25:29","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T17:25:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.app.com.pk\/?p=1152914"},"modified":"2026-01-28T22:25:29","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T17:25:29","slug":"australian-series-vital-to-finalize-team-combination-in-world-cup-salman-agha-muhammad-naeem-khan-niazi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.app.com.pk\/index.php\/2026\/01\/28\/australian-series-vital-to-finalize-team-combination-in-world-cup-salman-agha-muhammad-naeem-khan-niazi\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian series vital to finalize team combination in World Cup: Salman Agha Muhammad Naeem Khan Niazi"},"content":{"rendered":"
LAHORE, Jan 28 (APP):Pakistan white-ball captain Salman Agha has said that the three-match T20I series against Australia is vital in finalizing team combination for the ICC Men\u2019s T20I World Cup in Sri Lanka.<\/div>\n
In the pre-series press conference at the Gaddafi stadium here on Wednesday, he said there are some boxes that need to be ticked \u2014 this is the series during which the team will tick all boxes.<\/div>\n
\u201cWe have fair idea about the team combinations but the three matches against Australia ahead of the T20 World Cup will help us in deciding team combinations and positions even better,\u201d he added. He said every team member is sure about his role in the eleven.<\/div>\n
Agha said that an effort had been made to prepare similar pitches to the Sri Lankan condition, adding that he expected to do well in the series.<\/div>\n
To a query, he said the team has been playing aggressive cricket for the past one year and they scored big whenever the conditions were conducive to batting.<\/div>\n
The Pakistan captain rejected the idea that Pakistan team has not done well against the stronger team, adding that there are no \u201cbig or small\u201d teams in T20I cricket.<\/div>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re playing internationally, no team can be easy, any team that comes to us, we don\u2019t look at whether they\u2019re the number one team or lower-ranked than us; we look at how we can improve our cricket and what plan we can execute.\u201d<\/div>\n
On chances of a series win against a depleted visiting Australian side, Salman disagreed with the idea that it was a \u201cgolden opportunity\u201d to beat Australia in the absence of five senior cricketers. He said Australian team are mentally very strong and no Australian side can be deemed weak<\/div>\n
On Babar\u2019s unimpressive batting stint as per the batter\u2019s standards in the Big Bash League (BBL) in Australia, the all-rounder said that he was least concerned about Babar Azam\u2019s recent performance for the Sydney Sixers, adding that the ace batter has been doing good for the Pakistan team recently.<\/div>\n
\u201cI wonder when the journalists will discuss performance of the other 14 cricketers in the team as well and let Babar Azam alone,\u201d Agha said in a light-hearted response to a journalist.<\/div>\n
On fans throwing tantrums on team\u2019s low performances, he said cricket was the only top sport in the country and fans\u2019 disappointment, sometimes, was natural if the team did not do well. However, he expressed the hope that fans will turn up in large numbers to watch the games against Australia.<\/div>\n
He said odd-spinner Usman Tariq may be a trump card for the Pakistan bowling in the Sri Lankan conditions during the World Cup, adding that he was aware of his superior statistics while batting at number 3 but he must play as per the team requirement.<\/div>\n
Pakistan squad: Salman Ali Agha (captain), Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Khawaja Mohammad Nafay (wk), Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Salman Mirza, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Naseem Shah, Sahibzada Farhan (wk), Saim Ayub, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shadab Khan, Usman Khan (wk) and Usman Tariq.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LAHORE, Jan 28 (APP):Pakistan white-ball captain Salman Agha has said that the three-match T20I series against Australia is vital in finalizing team combination for the ICC Men\u2019s T20I World Cup in Sri Lanka. In the pre-series press conference at the Gaddafi stadium here on Wednesday, he said there are some boxes that need to be…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1152915,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"pmpro_default_level":"","_speechable_audio":"","_speechable_word_timings":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[6097,6098,2899],"post_template":[],"top_category":[],"class_list":["post-1152914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-captain-salman-agha","tag-finalize","tag-t20i","pmpro-has-access"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.app.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1152914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.app.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.app.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.app.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.app.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1152914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.app.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1152914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.app.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1152915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.app.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1152914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.app.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1152914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.app.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1152914"},{"taxonomy":"post_template","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.app.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_template?post=1152914"},{"taxonomy":"top_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.app.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/top_category?post=1152914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}