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Salman Ali Agha (L) and Mohammad Amir (R) (Source: AFP/X)
Just a few days back, former Pakistan pacer Mohammad Amir ridiculed the explosive Indian opener, Abhishek Sharma, downing his batting technique. During a show on Geo News, the host asked Amir about his strategy for tackling Abhishek Sharma.
Mohammad Amir came up with a brutal remark during his response to the host’s question, saying, “Honestly, he’s just a slogger. His chances of failure are high. He’s not a technically sound batsman. It’s not difficult to tackle such a batsman if you bowl on the body line. He will also struggle against slow balls.”
Meanwhile, the former Indian T20 World Cup-winning off-spinner, Harbhajan Singh, showed a mirror to Mohammad Amir, with a reference to Pakistan skipper Salman Agha’s misjudged shot in the game against India.
"Slogging doesn’t work against good teams" - Harbhajan Singh's dig at Mohammad Amir
Harbhajan Singh categorically questioned Salman Agha’s place in the T20I team, be it as a batter or captain due to his poor batting technique.
“The way their captain [Salman Ali Agha] was dismissed on a poor shot, if I would be a part of this management, I’d have sent him directly to the domestic cricket to improve as a batter, let alone taking away captaincy from him,” said Harbhajan Singh on Pakistan skipper’s dismissal.
“Some Pakistani player said that Abhishek Sharma does lappebazi (slogging); show them the clip of Pakistan’s captain Salman Agha and tell them this is slogging and it doesn’t work against good teams,” he added later, targeting Mohammad Amir for his remarks about Abhishek’s batting technique.
“Abhishek’s failure today was an exceptional case, but he is the kind of batter who thrashes the bigger teams with his batting performances,” Harbhajan concluded.
Notably, Pakistan skipper Salman Ali Agha has been through a horrific run of form with the bat in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2026. He has scored just 17 runs in three innings at a very poor average of just 5.66 and a strike rate of just 113.33. He has been one of the weak links in Pakistan’s struggling batting attack in the tournament.
India become first team in Group A to reach super-8
The 61-run success against the arch-rivals Pakistan was the third successive win for India in the first three matches of their World Cup campaign. In their first two games, the Men in Blue defeated the USA and Namibia by the margins of 29 and 93 runs, respectively.
Currently, India are at the top of the Group A points table with 6 points. They will now face the Netherlands in their last group-stage fixture at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
Apart from India, the Super-8 qualification scenario for other teams in Group A has become more interesting. After Pakistan’s defeat against India and the USA’s win against Namibia on the same day, the Men in Green slipped to the third spot, with the USA climbing to the second spot.
Now, if Pakistan manage to avoid an upset in their last group-stage fixture against Namibia, they will easily qualify for the next round. But if Namibia stuns Pakistan in this game, Salman Agha’s men will be knocked out of the tournament’s group stage in the second successive edition after the same fate two years ago in the T20 World Cup 2024.
