Fans Targeting Salman Agha's Family 'Very Shameful', Says Mirza Amid Pakistan's Dwindling T20 World Cup Hopes

Pakistan left-arm seamer Salman Mirza on Friday (February 27, 2026) said it was very "shameful" for fans to target the family of skipper Salman Ali Agha amid the team's dismal performance in the T20 World Cup. Agha has been in poor form with the bat, totalling just 60 runs from six matches so far, while there has been rising criticism of his captaincy.

But Mirza defended his skipper ahead off Pakistan's vital Super Eights match against Sri Lanka. ".... any such act which targets the player's family is a very shameful thing. Because the player always wants to do good in the ground. If he doesn't perform well on any given day, that doesn't mean you should target their families. And I don't think this should happen at all," Mirza said .

Pakistan will need a big win over the already-eliminated Sri Lanka on Saturday and a favour from England to keep their semi-final hopes alive. But Mirza chose to focus on the positives and said his team was only looking to do whatever is in its hands.

"Yes, absolutely. There is enough capability in Pakistan that they not only reach the semi-final but also do very well. And as you said, it is hanging by a thread – now that is not in our control. We are just watching our match and hopefully will do well in that," he said at the pre-match press conference.

"... Regardless of today's game or tomorrow's game, we can't control it and we are just focusing on our game and we will try to do best in that.

"As a player you always want to do well and you always evaluate yourself whether you are doing well or not. As a player - we try to give our best for the team and we try to do that. But whether it happens or not, that's not in our control."

Sri Lanka bowling coach Rene Ferdinands, meanwhile said losing all-rounder Wanindu Hasaranga at the start of the tournament was a big setback for the co-hosts. Hasaranga was ruled out of the T20 World Cup early on due to a significant left hamstring tear sustained during their opening match against Ireland on February 8, after returning figures of 3/25 in that game.

"Well clearly if you have a player of high profile like that (Hasaranga) who is a world class performer, any team that uses a world class performer is going to have challenges restoring the balance of the team.

"And so we are in the same boat. I mean that was clear. So we have done our best and we have good replacements. And yeah, of course, that's a challenge. And you never get two, Wanindu Hasaranga is one. So that's expected," he said ahead of their face-off with Pakistan.

Sri Lanka are already out of semi-finals contention, but Ferdinands said they will look to end their campaign on an upbeat note. "It's like any match, we want to try to win it. We know that Pakistan is a good opposition, we respect them, but in every sense we want to try to win. There's never been any other question So we're always looking to bounce back and we're preparing in that vein," he said.

Ferdinands added that things didn't exactly go as per their plans in terms of conditions. "So generally like that, we are talking about adhering to processes and things like that. And in general terms, if we have a process and there are conditions that are different, and it did not exactly go to plan, but that is the nature of professional cricket, You have your professional processes and you try to adhere to them," he said.

(With PTI inputs)