T20 World Cup: ‘It’s batters who always take game deep. Not bowlers..’: Rashid Latif rips apart Pakistan captain Salman Ali Agha on bowling tactics against ENG | Cricket News
4 min readUpdated: Feb 25, 2026 04:24 PM IST
With England chasing a target of 165 runs against Pakistan in the Group 1 Super 8 match at Pallekele on Tuesday, the two-time T20 World champions were once 58 for 4 in 7.1 overs in the run-chase. With Pakistani spinner Usman Tariq picking up the wicket of Tom Banton off the first ball of his spell in the eighth over of England’s innings, Pakistan captain Salman Ali Agha did not bowl Tariq for his next over and gave the ball to Saim Ayub in the tenth over. It meant that England went from 58 for 4 to 104 for 4 in the next four overs before Tariq removed Sam Curran in the 12th over in what was his second over of his spell. With England winning the match by two wickets, Former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif questioned Salman Ali Agha’s move to not bowl Tariq in the tenth over and how bowlers don’t take the match into deep and it was a huge mistake not to bowl Tariq.
“I have told earlier also and I say now that Pakistan did not have the bowling to all out the opposition. The bowling unit was thinking to take the game deep. It’s the batsman who always takes the game deep. Not the bowlers. Yes, one keeps fast bowlers for the 16, 17 and 18th over but you cannot save a bowler like Tariq. He is your stock bowler. He got out Tom Banton and the way he was bowling, the tenth over should have been bowled by him. That’s when the game started to drift away from Pakistan. England reached 104 from 58 and it meant that they did not face any pressure in that phase,” said Latif on the show Haarna Mana Hai.
England lost three wickets in the power play during the chase. Pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi, who had picked up a total of three wickets in the tournament in the group stage before being dropped for Pakistan’s last group match against Namibia, picked up wickets of England batters Phil Salt, Jos Buttler, and Jacob Bethell in the first three overs of his spell before he picked up wicket of centurion Harry Brook in the last over of his spell. At the time of Brook’s dismissal, England still needed ten runs from 18 balls. Spinner Mohammad Nawaz removed Will Jacks and Jamie Overton in the 19th over before Jofra Archer hit the winning runs for England in the last over. Former Pakistani opener Ahmed Shehzad praised the effort of Afridi and shared how his change in tactics worked for him in the match.
‘Shaheen got a good chance. We all were saying earlier that give a chance to Naseem Shah in place of Shaheen. But they (Pakistan team-management) persisted with Shaheen. Shaheen proved by bowling well. He did not bring the ball in today. That’s what we have been saying for the last ten years. Today, he hit the length. (Phil) Salt was shining that the ball would come in. He showed the bat and it took the edge. Second batsman went for a cut and it was a boundary ball. But Jos (Butler) under-edged the ball and gave the catch. Shaheen changed mathematics and in such cases your luck also works,” said Shehzad.
Pakistan captain Salman Ali Agha had spoken about Afridi’s bowling against England post the loss. “He (bowled really well today. He’s famous for early wickets and he did that today. Whenever we play against England and lose, it’s always him,” Agha said post the loss.
