The post-mortem of Pakistan’s campaign in the T20 World Cup 2026 is refusing to die down. Reportedly, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has decided to penalise the players for their poor show in the tournament. According to reports, each member of the squad is set to be fined PKR 5 million (approximately Rs 16 lakh).
Pakistan registered a narrow win over Sri Lanka but failed to qualify to the last-four stage after failing to restrict the co-hosts by the required margin. Batting first, Pakistan scored 212 for 8 in 20 overs, and had to restrict Sri Lanka to 147 in order to progress to the semis on the basis of better net run-rate. Despite a jittery start, Sri Lanka made 207 for 6 in 20 overs. Former Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi blasted Shaheen Shah Afridi, who is married to his daughter, for giving away 22 runs in the last over.
“He (Shaheen Afridi) has been playing for some time now. You don’t know from where you have to bowl the last over. He has been told many times, he should know these things by now. He has been repeating his old mistakes again and again,” Afridi said on Samaa TV.
“When a right-hander is batting, you can’t bowl from round the wicket. If one still wants to bowl from that angle, a left-armer has to bowl at the stumps. When the third-man and point fielders are inside the circle, you can’t bowl wide yorkers. This angle becomes an easy one for batters to hit on Asian pitches. If you had bowled from over the wicket, it would have been difficult for batters to hit a six. I don’t know when these guys will learn. They don’t learn, nor do they want to learn,” he added.
There are rumours that Pakistan could sack Salman Agha from captaincy and the potential frontrunner for the role is Shadab Khan. Commenting on this Afridi said Shadab is not good enough to be in the Pakistan side, captaincy is a long shot.
“Looking at his performance, I wouldn’t even keep him in the team, let alone give him the captaincy,” the former allrounder said.
Shadab had a poor campaign in the T20 World Cup, picked five wickets in seven matches and scored 118 runs. “The head coach is giving Shadab chance after chance. That’s why I said Shadab can become the next Pakistan captain. But looking at his recent performances, he doesn’t even deserve a place in the playing XI,” Afridi said.
