After Pakistan’s run victory against UAE in the Asia Cup 2025, the Men in Green captain Salman Agha has sent a message to Indian Cricket team saying the side is ready for any challenge.
Pakistan defeated UAE by 41 runs setting up the stage to secure a spot in the Asia Cup Super Fours. The match started an hour late as Pakistan threatened to pull out after the handshake row during the previous game against India.
Shaheen Afridi who scored a unbeaten 29 runs off 14 deliveries helping the side to post 146 runs and eventually excelled with ball to defend the total.
Pakistan’s top order Fakhar Zaman went on to smash 50 runs off 36 deliveries. Haris and Shaheen Afridi’s cameos put a fighting score at Dubai.
India captain Suryakumar Yadav did not shake hands with Salman Agha after the toss. The Indian team had decided to play against Pakistan with an attitude and did not engage in handshakes with their opponents before and after the match.
Pakistan lodged an official complaint against India’s behavious and they even went on to demand the removal of match referee Andy Pycroft from the remainder of the tournament, accusing the former Zimbabwe cricketer of misconduct during the toss.
Tha Pakistan Cricket Team did threatened to boycott the match if Pycroft was not removed as match referee ahead of their must win game against UAE.
They even requested to delay the match one hour before it finally began after PCB claimed Pycroft’ apologised to them.
After their victory against UAE, Salman Agha was asked about facing Indian side that refused to shake hands with them during the group stage match, Pakistan captain said they are ready for the challenge.
“We’re ready for any challenge and if we keep playing the way we have over the last four months, we’ll be good against any side,” he said in the post-match presentation.
Salman Agha agreed that Pakistan needs comee up with an improved batting performance in the Super Four stage.
“We got the job done but we still need to improve our batting in the middle order. That’s been a concern and something we need to work on. Apart from that, we did a good job. We haven’t batted at our best yet…we’re still just finding our way to 150.”
“If we bat well in the middle overs, we can push it to 170 no matter the opposition. Shaheen’s batting has improved a lot–he’s already great with the ball. Saim is someone who has been bringing us back into games and I hope he can continue like this till the end,” concluded Salman Agha.
