After his team’s elimination from the T20 World Cup on Saturday, a frustrated Salman Agha claimed that his squad had “underperformed” but refrained from making a “emotional” judgment regarding his future as Pakistan captain.
Despite defeating Sri Lanka in their last Super Eights game on Saturday in Kandy, Pakistan were eliminated on net run rate.
“We have underperformed in the whole tournament. We are out of the semis due to our failure in decision-making in pressure situations,” AFP quoted Agha telling reporters.
Pakistan scored 212/8, and opener Sahibzada Farhan became the only batsman to slam two hundreds in the same T20 World Cup. However, they were unable to limit Sri Lanka to 147, and New Zealand advanced to the semifinals.
“Farhan was outstanding in the tournament but none of the other batters could come up to expectations,” said Agha, who only managed 60 runs in seven matches in the tournament.
Captain Dasun Shanaka struck eight sixes and 76 not out off 31 balls as Sri Lanka scored 207/6 to lose by 5 runs. After losing to England and having their Super Eights opener against New Zealand rained off, Pakistan needed to overcome Sri Lanka by a significant margin in order to reach the semifinals.
“(Head coach Mike) Hesson and I take the responsibility as we selected the eleven for the matches. I will go back and take some time to decide. Because at this point of time stepping down would be an emotional decision,” said Agha, who added he would not make an immediate call on whether to stand down as captain.
