Pakistan captain Agha rues middle order struggles after T20 World Cup 2026 exit

KANDY: Pakistan captain Salman Ali Agha acknowledged the middle order's consistent struggles as the long-standing "problem" for his side after their exit from the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026 despite a narrow victory over Sri Lanka in the last Super Eights match here at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium on Saturday.

The 2009 champions, who had just one point in two matches courtesy of a washout against New Zealand in their Super Eights campaign opener, needed to beat Sri Lanka by a substantial margin to pip the Blackcaps' net run rate and qualify for the semi-finals alongside leaders England.

Put into bat first, Pakistan registered a formidable total of 212/8 on the board in their 20 overs, courtesy of a monumental 176-run opening partnership between Sahibzada Farhan and Fakhar Zaman.

Arguably, the Green Shirts could have amassed an even bigger total against Sri Lanka as they were 200/3 after 18 overs, but their middle order's failure halted the flow of runs as they managed 12 off the final two overs, during which they lost five more wickets.

The collapse against Sri Lanka stretched Pakistan's middle-order batters' struggles in the ongoing tournament, during which none of them could score a half-century.

Reflecting on his team's campaign at the T20 World Cup 2026, Pakistan captain Agha admitted their repeated batting failures, especially of the middle order, before vowing to address them after the tournament.

"We couldn't bat well throughout the tournament. If Farhan had more support, it would have been better. Middle order has been a problem for a few years now, we'll have to look at that," said Agha at the post-match presentation.

Despite the nervy end to their innings, Pakistan had a realistic chance to qualify for the semi-finals as they needed to restrict Sri Lanka to 147 or less, but half-centuries from Pavan Rathnayake and Dasun Shanaka propelled the home side to 207/6, and Agha stressed that the dew factor prevented them from executing their plans.

He also backed mystery spinner Usman Tariq, who had a rare failure with the ball as he went wicketless and conceded 43 runs in his four overs before asserting that even 160 would have been difficult to defend in such conditions.

"Was always challenging after losing the toss because of dew. Could've been a different story had we won the toss. Dew was a factor. We couldn't execute plans. Usman had an off-day; it can happen," Agha stated.

"Couldn't finish the way we wanted to. We batted well 18 overs, opposition did well in the other two. Even 160 would've been difficult to defend," he added.

Later at the post-match press conference, Agha said he and head coach Mike Hesson take full responsibility for the team's performance, which he described as "below-average".

"If I have to sum up the whole tournament, I think we played below-average cricket," said Agha.

"We haven't qualified for the semi-finals in the last four ICC tournaments because we haven't made the right decisions at crucial moments.

"The coach and I will take full responsibility for this performance."