Basit Ali: “It’s because of Salman Ali Agha’s vote that Azhar Mahmood was given the title of interim coach”
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Former Pakistan batsman Basit Ali has taken a dig at Azhar Mahmood, saying he only became interim red-ball head coach thanks to T20I captain Salman Ali Agha.
Basit suggested that if Salman hadn’t backed Mahmood, the former all-rounder probably wouldn’t have gotten the coaching role.
“It’s because of Salman Ali Agha’s vote that Azhar Mahmood was given the title of interim coach,” he was quoted as saying by Khel Shel on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Salman has been busy captaining the Pakistan T20I team lately as they recently took on Bangladesh in a three-match T20I series in Lahore and won 3-0.
The men in green then toured Bangladesh for another three-match T20I series, but lost 2-1.
After this, Pakistan embarked on a white-ball tour of the West Indies and came away with mixed results as they won the T20I series 2-1 but lost the ODIs 2-1.
Next up for the men in green will be a T20I tri-series against the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Afghanistan in Sharjah, which will be played from August 29 to September 7.
Following this, Pakistan will be involved in the 2025 Asia Cup, which will take place in the UAE from September 9 to 28.
Pakistan squad for UAE T20I tri-series and 2025 Asia Cup: Salman Ali Agha (captain), Abrar Ahmed, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Hasan Nawaz, Hussain Talat, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Haris (wicketkeeper), Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Salman Mirza, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Sufiyan Muqeem