Pakistan’s T20 cricket captain Salman Ali Agha has said that he is considering a break from the T20 format in order to recharge his batteries in time for the ICC ODI World Cup next year. He said he also wants to focus on the World Test Championship cycle.
Agha said next year’s World Cup is the most significant event on agenda and if required he would take a break from T20 cricket to prepare.
The ODI World Cup is scheduled to be held in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Namibia in October and November, next year.
“The World Cup is a long way to go but yes one has to think about managing one’s schedule and workload. If I feel it (break) can help me in preparing for the World Cup and Tests I will do it,” Agha told reporters here.
Agha has been the national T20 captain for a year now but questions are being raised on his position due to his recent struggle in the format.
The batting all-rounder batted at number three in the World Cup without much success. The Team did not make the semifinals stage.
However in last month’s ODI series in Bangladesh, he had scores of 106, 64 and 5.
Agha also talked about the PSL and felt that while it was a good platform to identify new talent but he didn’t support picking young players directly from the league for international cricket.
“I would rather like to see a process where we identify strong young talent in the PSL and send them to play in domestic cricket and then review their performances and decide if they are ready for international cricket,” Agha added.
Agha said there were many examples in the past of some players being picked for international matches purely on PSL performances and not succeeding at the highest level.
(With inputs from PTI)
