Daw
n Sport
November 17, 2025
Pakistan will stick to their strategy of relying on all-rounders rather than specialists in T20 cricket going into the tri-series — also involving Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe — which starts in Rawalpindi on Tuesday.
The opener at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium — which will host the entirety of the tournament — will be played between the hosts and Zimbabwe, and Pakistan will look up to their all-rounders to make a difference again.
The strategy, which has emerged as a blueprint of Pakistan’s white-ball head coach Mike Hesson since was appointed in May this year, has come under heavy criticism due to its nature of ignoring the importance of specialist batters and bowlers.
But for Pakistan T20 captain Salman Ali Agha, it is the go-to approach given what he believes is a “luxury” to have good enough all-rounders to deliver with both bat and ball.
“As you may have seen, we try to go for all-rounders mostly, and thankfully we have some who bowl and bat equally well,” he said in the pre-series press conference at the venue on Monday. “So we’ll try to carry on the same combination for the tri series.
“All of the all-rounders we have can bowl all four overs, and they bat really well too. So why would we not try to utilise them?
“Mohammad Nawaz and Faheem Ashraf are full bowlers and full batters. All top teams are doing that [relying on all-rounders]. We take [having that option] it as an opportunity.”
Pakistan had named the squad for the tri-series, earlier this month and will carry on with the same players, barring batter Hasan Nawaz, who was dropped and asked to play first-class cricket following a series of poor performances.
While there was no replacement announced, Abdul Samad, another batter known for his power-hitting, is being seen as Pakistan’s choice for the lower middle-order finishing position.
“In the middle-order, you can say we are not performing the way we would like to,” Salman admitted. “Yes, Hasan Nawaz isn’t there — I hope he makes a comeback soon — but we have Abdul Samad, so we may give him a go. He bats at number six and can play the finisher’s role.”
Pakistan are unlikely to experiment further as they look to fine tune their combination with the T20 World Cup set to be held in February-March.
