ICC T20 World Cup 2026: Pakistan Skipper Salman Agha Looks To Avoid USA Upset Repeat – ‘That’s History Now’

Pakistan captain Salman Ali Agha said that his side are treating the ICC T20 World Cup 2026 as a clean slate, burying the memories of their stunning defeat to the United States of America in the previous edition despite being drawn in the same group again this time around.

In the 2024 edition, Pakistan suffered an embarrassing loss to the USA in one of the biggest upsets in the tournament’s history. The Super Over defeat led to Pakistan’s group-stage exit, marking their worst-ever showing in a T20 World Cup.

In the upcoming edition, which begins on February 7, Pakistan have been drawn in Group A, which also contains the USA. The other teams in the group are India, Namibia, and the Netherlands.

However, Salman Ali Agha, leading Pakistan in the T20 World Cup for the first time, is determined that history will not repeat itself when the Green Shirts face the Americans again.

“Yes, we lost to the USA in the last World Cup, but that’s history now,” Agha said at the captain’s press conference on Thursday. “It’s a new World Cup, a new team and a new combination, and we are very excited about it.”

“It’s my first World Cup as a captain, and I’m very excited about that. I don’t know how to describe myself as a captain,” he added. “As a captain, I just want to lead from the front and do as much as I can for the team, get the best out of the team, and prepare an environment where they can play at their best.”

Pakistan Get Australia Series Boost

Pakistan enter the tournament after a 3-0 home series win over Australia last week, even though the visitors were missing several key players.

“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,” Agha said. “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.”

Despite recent bilateral success, Pakistan’s ICC tournament record has been really poor, having been knocked out in the first round of the last three global events. They have also lost their matches against arch-rivals India.

“In the last three events, we haven’t played the cricket that was expected by us by the people, or what we expect from ourselves as a team,” the Pakistan skipper said. “But that is history, and we can only learn from that, and we have learnt a lot from it.”

(With PTI Inputs)