Pakistan Captain's Bizarre 'Pitch Excuse' After Yet Another Batting Failure Against India
Between the 11th and the 18th over in the match against India, Pakistan only scored 38 runs, the lowest for any team in this tournament.
India proved why they are world champions in the T20 format once again in the ongoing Asia Cup 2025 match, hammering Pakistan by 6 wickets in Dubai on Sunday. Be it with the bat or the ball, India proved their supremacy over Pakistan on the cricket field. After the match, however, Pakistan captain Salman Agha came up with a bizarre excuse, saying Pakistan aren't getting the sort of pitches in UAE that can enable them to produce their best cricket.
Pakistan have struggled to get close to 200-run totals in the Asia Cup, after comfortably doing so in the 3-match T20I series against Bangladesh at home in May. But, Salman doesn't feel pitches in UAE offer such assistance to batters.
"The series you are talking about (Pakistan vs Bangladesh) was in Pakistan, where the par score is 200. After that we played in Bangladesh, America (vs West Indies), Sharjah (tri-nation) and now in Dubai. These conditions are not for 200. These conditions don't allow you to score 200. You have to respect the conditions," he told reporters in the press conference.
At one stage in the match against India, Pakistan didn't score a single boundary for 37 balls. The Pakistan skipper feels if Lahore-like pitches were offered in UAE, his team would've done wonders with the bat.
"I think the conditions didn't allow us to score 200. If you give us good pitches, then you will see the same batting that you saw against Bangladesh. So, I think there is a lot of difference in the conditions," he said.
"Wickets are such that it is not easy for a new batter to come and play shots straightaway. So, a set batsman should go till the end. Indian batters also found it hard to read the pace of the wicket. We lost two set batters in that phase and it derailed our momentum," he said.
What Salman failed to mention was the numbers some of the Indian batters posted against Pakistan. While Abhishek Sharma scored at a strike-rate of 190 as an opener, even Tilak Varma produced a fine cameo of 30 off 19 balls in the middle-order.
The Pakistan skipper, however, was quick to label pitch as a more decisive factor that it was, in reality.
Explaining his team's approach in the middle overs, Salman Agha said: "I think that Hussain Talat is a very good batsman against spin. At that time, we thought that if we kept the right and left-hand combination, it would be difficult for the bowlers. And when you keep that combination, it becomes difficult for the spinners to settle down."
India Cricket Team
Pakistan Cricket Team