Pakistan batsman Salman Ali Agha: “When I played U-19 and initially started FC (first-class) cricket, I used to dominate spinners a lot [more]. I think I’m still not as dominant [against spin] right now as I used to be… 4-5 years ago”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Pakistan middle order batsman Salman Ali Agha has admitted that he is not as dominant as he used to be against spin bowling.
He noted that he used to play spinners a lot better four to five years ago, but has started to struggle more against that type of bowling since he mostly faces fast bowling now.
The 30-year-old acknowledged that he wants to improve his game against spin bowling and take it back to where it was a few years ago.
“When I played U-19 and initially started FC (first-class) cricket, I used to dominate spinners a lot [more]. I think I’m still not as dominant [against spin] right now as I used to be… 4-5 years ago. If I could still do that, then I could do things a little differently. In domestic cricket and international cricket, you mostly face pacers, so I think after having faced so many, my spin game isn’t the same. In the Bangladesh series, I struggled against spinners, even though the pitches were grassy and didn’t help spin,” Salman was quoted as saying by Grassroots Cricket on X, formerly known as Twitter.
In Pakistan’s two-Test series against Bangladesh, Salman accumulated 120 runs, which included a top score of 54, at an average of 40.
He then proceeded to feature in the three-Test series against England and finished with 262 runs, which included a century and two fifties, at an average of 65.50.
Salman is now featuring in Pakistan’s limited overs series against Australia, which consists of three ODIs and three T20Is.
In the ODIs, he only batted once and scored 12 runs. Despite this, the men in green won 2-1, which gave them their first ODI series win in Australia since 2002.
As for the T20Is, he has made scores of 4 and 0.
Once their tour of Australia concludes, Pakistan will travel to Zimbabwe to play three ODIs and three T20Is from November 24 to December 5.
Pakistan Squad for Australia ODI Series: Aamer Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Arafat Minhas, Babar Azam, Faisal Akram, Haris Rauf, Haseebullah Khan (wicketkeeper), Kamran Ghulam, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Rizwan (captain and wicketkeeper), Irfan Khan, Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Shaheen Shah Afridi
Pakistan Squad for Australia T20I Series: Arafat Minhas, Babar Azam, Haris Rauf, Haseebullah Khan, Jahandad Khan, Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Rizwan (captain and wicketkeeper), Irfan Khan, Naseem Shah, Omair Bin Yousuf, Sahibzada Farhan, Salman Ali Agha, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Sufiyan Muqeem, Usman Khan
Pakistan Squad for Zimbabwe ODI Series: Aamer Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Ahmed Daniyal, Faisal Akram, Haris Rauf, Haseebullah Khan (wicketkeeper), Kamran Ghulam, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Rizwan (captain and wicketkeeper), Irfan Khan, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Shahnawaz Dahani, Tayyab Tahir
Pakistan Squad for Zimbabwe T20I Series: Ahmed Daniyal, Arafat Minhas, Haris Rauf, Haseebullah Khan (wicketkeeper), Jahandad Khan, Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Hasnain, Irfan Khan, Omair bin Yousuf, Qasim Akram, Sahibzada Farhan, Salman Ali Agha, Sufiyan Muqeem, Tayyab Tahir, Usman Khan