Salman Ali Agha | Pakistan

Doors are not yet closed on all-rounder Shadab Khan to make a comeback in the Pakistan side ahead of next year’s T20 World Cup, skipper Salman Ali Agha said on Saturday. Shadab last featured for the national side back in June during the T20I series against Bangladesh before an injury ruled him out. Since then, Pakistan have found their main all-rounder in Mohammad Nawaz, who has starred with both bat and ball across past six months as the team won a tri-series in the UAE before making it to the Asia Cup final. On Saturday, Pakistan won another tri-series, this time at home, after beating Sri Lanka clinically in Rawalpindi — the match seeing Nawaz take three wickets to turn the game around for the hosts. Apart from Nawaz, opener Saim Ayub has also consolidated his role as Pakistan’s impactful spin option while Abrar Ahmed and Usman Tariq have announced themselves as worthy specialists. Salman, however, didn’t rule out the possibility of Shadab’s return when the teams flies out to Sri Lanka — the co-hosts of th...

Pakistan will stick to their strategy of relying on all-rounders rather than specialists in T20 cricket going into the tri-series — also involving Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe — which starts in Rawalpindi on Tuesday. The opener at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium — which will host the entirety of the tournament — will be played between the hosts and Zimbabwe, and Pakistan will look up to their all-rounders to make a difference again. The strategy, which has emerged as a blueprint of Pakistan’s white-ball head coach Mike Hesson since was appointed in May this year, has come under heavy criticism due to its nature of ignoring the importance of specialist batters and bowlers. But for Pakistan T20 captain Salman Ali Agha, it is the go-to approach given what he believes is a “luxury” to have good enough all-rounders to deliver with both bat and ball. “As you may have seen, we try to go for all-rounders mostly, and thankfully we have some who bowl and bat equally well,” he said in the pre-series press conference at the ven...