HOBART: Pakistan’s stand-in captain Salman Ali Agha opened up after the national team succumbed to a 3-0 T20I series whitewash against Australia here at the Bellerive Oval on Monday.
Reflecting on the national team’s white-ball tour of Australia during the post-match presentation of the third T20I, Agha termed the drought-ending ODI series win a big achievement but reiterated that they could have done better in the shortest format.
“It's a big achievement for us to win a One Day series here after 22 years, could've done better in the T20 series but we'll come back stronger. They [crowd] have been amazing," Agha said.
The all-rounder also termed the visitors’ failure to capitalize the start in the middle overs a major factor behind the loss.
"I think in the middle overs we didn't capitalize the start, we lost too many wickets,” stated Agha.
Agha further highlighted the positives from the recently-concluded T20I series, praising emerging batter Usman Khan and debutant Jahandad Khan.
“Lots of positives. The way Usman batted, the way Jahandad bowled. These youngsters will come good,” Agha remarked.
Pakistan entered the T20I series with momentum in their favour as the green shirts were fresh from their first series victory in Australia since 2002 but, failed to continue the winning run in T20Is.
The visitors were blown away in the rain-reduced series opener before suffering a narrow 13-run defeat in the second fixture.
Meanwhile, in the final T20I, Pakistan were outclassed by the hosts in all departments.
- Salman Ali Agha
