Pakistan Captain Salman Ali Agha Laments Bangladesh's Absence from T20 World Cup

Addressing the media at the Captains' Briefing in Colombo on Thursday, Agha said leading Pakistan at a World Cup for the first time was a special moment for him.

"It's my first World Cup as a captain, and I'm very excited for that. And yeah, I don't know how to describe myself as a captain. I just want to lead from the front and try to make as much as I can from my players and bring the best out of them and give them an environment where they can play their best cricket," he said.

Bangladesh were dropped from the tournament after refusing to travel to India for their scheduled fixtures and were replaced by Scotland in the expanded 20-team competition.

Reacting to the development, Agha extended his support to Bangladesh. "Well, they are our brothers. I thank them for supporting us. And I'll say they can support us in the tournament as well. And it's really sad to see that they are not playing the World Cup," he said.

Pakistan are entering the World Cup on the back of a strong run of results, including a recent clean sweep against Australia. Agha believes the momentum has strengthened the team's belief.

"We have been playing really good cricket. I think post-Asia Cup, we haven't lost a series yet, and we have won most of our games. We are playing really good cricket. Everything is coming along very nicely. We are very hopeful and excited for this World Cup and really hope to do well here as well," he said.

The Pakistan skipper acknowledged fans' disappointment over the team's performances in recent ICC tournaments but urged continued support.

"The fans are disappointed because we have not played good cricket in the last five ICC tournaments. But when you go to a tournament, you think 100% that we will win this tournament. And we have also come here thinking that we will win this tournament. And the fans have always been supporting us. Just support us on this tournament as well, and we will play, and we will try our best to win this tournament," Agha said.

Looking ahead to their opening match against the Netherlands, Agha stressed that every team in the competition deserves respect.

"I think when a team comes to play the ICC World Cup, it's not a small team. I think all the teams are very good. All three teams in our group, they are very good sides. And they have played a lot of cricket. They have a lot of experienced players as well. So we are preparing for these games like we always do against any other team, and when we take the field against any team, we will try our best to play to our potential and execute our plans, and I feel that if we execute our plans, we can defeat any team," he said.

On Pakistan's title ambitions, Agha admitted recent ICC events had fallen short of expectations but highlighted the progress made in recent months.

"In the last three events, we haven't played the cricket that was expected from us by the people, or what we expect from ourselves as a team. But that is history, and we can only learn from that, and we have learnt a lot from it. Now we are playing very good cricket, since the last 6 months, we are ticking all the boxes, and each player knows their role and is doing it well. so we are very hopeful in this tournament that we will play good cricket and win this tournament," he said.

Agha also spoke warmly about Sri Lanka, where Pakistan are currently based, describing it as a familiar and welcoming venue.

"Sri Lanka is like a second home for me. I have played here so many times. And I have toured here like five, six times now in my three years' career in international. And yeah, the people here are very, very good and very nice people. I love coming here. And as a team, we love coming here. And whenever we came here, we got so much support here. And we love playing in Sri Lanka. And we are very excited this time around as well," he said.

The ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026 will be held from February 7 to March 8. Defending champions India are placed in Group A alongside Namibia, the Netherlands, the USA and Pakistan.

Team India squad for ICC T20 World Cup 2026:

Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Rinku Singh. (ANI)

Pakistan squad for ICC T20 World Cup 2026: Salman Ali Agha (captain), Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Khawaja Mohammad Nafay (wicketkeeper), Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Salman Mirza, Naseem Shah, Sahibzada Farhan (wicketkeeper), Saim Ayub, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shadab Khan, Usman Khan, Usman Tariq.

- ANI