Skipper Salman says Pakistan ‘underperformed’, holds back decision on captaincy future

PALLEKELE: A disappointed Salman Ali Agha said his team had “underperformed” after they exited the T20 World Cup on Saturday, but held back from making an “emotional” decision on his future as Pakistan captain.

Pakistan were knocked out on net run-rate despite beating Sri Lanka in their final Super Eights match in Kandy on Saturday.

“We have underperformed in the whole tournament,” Salman told reporters. “We are out of the semis due to our failure in decision-making in pressure situations.”

Opener Sahibzada Farhan became the only player to score two hundreds in the same T20 World Cup as Pakistan posted 212-8.

But they failed to restrict Sri Lanka to 147 and New Zealand went through to the semi-finals.

“Farhan was outstanding in the tournament but none of the other batters could come up to expectations,” said Salman, who only managed 60 runs in seven tournament matches.

Sri Lankan skipper Dasun Shanaka hit 76 not out off 31 balls with eight sixes as Sri Lanka scored 207-6 to lose by five runs.

A rained-off Super Eights opener against New Zealand and a defeat to England left Pakistan needing to beat Sri Lanka by a massive margin to advance.

“(Head coach Mike) Hesson and I take the responsibility as we selected the eleven for the matches,” said Salman, who added he would not make an immediate call on whether to stand down as captain. “I will go back and take some time to decide,” he said.

“Because at this point of time stepping down would be an emotional decision.”

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s Sanath Jayasuriya said he will step down as head coach after the team’s poor campaign.

Tournament co-hosts Sri Lanka made the Super Eights but the 2014 champion lost all three matches to finish at the bottom of Group 2.

“I thought it was time to give it (the job) to someone else,” Jayasuriya said on Saturday. “That’s why about two months ago I’d said during the England series that I don’t have hopes of staying in the job for long. I’d taken this decision by then.

“I thought I’d be able to leave as coach on a good note in the World Cup. I wasn’t able to do that as well as I’d like, and I’m sad about that.”

The former captain, whose contract runs until June, said he was yet to convey his decision to Sri Lanka Cricket.

“I haven’t given SLC any news officially yet. They don’t know that I am going to say this even. I will need to go and discuss with them.”

Published in Dawn, March 2nd, 2026

Click here to read article