Salman Agha Issues Strong Warning to India Ahead of Asia Cup Final Showdown

The two arch-rivals will face off for the third time in the tournament, having previously met in the group stage and the Super Fours.

Pakistan Captain Salman Agha Confident Ahead of Asia Cup Final Against India

After a thrilling Super 4s win over Bangladesh, Pakistan skipper Salman Agha praised his team’s performance, calling them a “special team” and asserting they have the quality to beat anyone, including India, in the Asia Cup final. Defending a modest total of 135, Pakistan’s bowlers delivered a heroic effort to secure an 11-run victory, setting up a maiden Asia Cup title clash with their arch-rivals.

“If you win these kind of games, then we must be a special team. Everyone played really well. There is some improvement needed in batting, but we will work on that,” Salman Agha said during the presentation.

The two rivals will meet for the third time in the tournament, after encounters in the group stage and Super Fours.

“Very excited. We know what we need to do, and we are a good enough team to beat anyone, and we will come on Sunday and try to beat them,” he added.

Salman Agha highlighted Shaheen Shah Afridi’s all-round performance, who earned the Player-of-the-Match award.

“Shaheen is a special player. He does what the team needs of him. Very happy for him. We were 15 runs short. The way we bowled up front, we will create pressure. We bowled well with the new ball. More often than not, you will win games if you bowl like this,” Salman Agha said.

Afridi contributed with a quick 13-ball 19 to boost Pakistan’s total and then returned with figures of 3/17. Discussing the strategy, Afridi noted, “Early on, as a team, we need breakthroughs and I go for that. In a small total, you need early breakthroughs, and we planned that. Three overs in the powerplay – that is the difference.”

On his batting, he added, “After early wickets, team decided to let me go and take on bowlers. Those sixes turned momentum to our end.” Looking ahead to the final against India, Afridi confirmed, “We are ready.”

Batting cost us the match: Jaker Ali

Bangladesh stand-in skipper Jaker Ali attributed their successive defeats to poor batting, following their Super 4s loss to India on Wednesday.

“As a batting unit, last two games we lost it. We did good work with the bowling unit. Yesterday also the batting cost us the game,” he said.

Reflecting on his captaincy efforts, Jaker added, “I tried to take those chances. I tried to adjust to the captaincy. Our bowlers Rishad and then Saif with the bat. Unfortunately, we didn’t support Saif much.”

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