'Fearless without being careless' - Salman Agha lays down marker for Pakistan in T20Is

A lot has changed between Pakistan's last T20I series and this one. That took place in New Zealand in the wake of a disastrous home Champions Trophy campaign, while this one, against Bangladesh, happened at home on the other side of PSL 2025. Pakistan have a new coaching staff, and produced a markedly different result - a 3-0 rout of Bangladesh as opposed to a 4-1 reverse in New Zealand.

What satisfies Salman Agha, though, is that Pakistan's style of play, he feels, did not change. Their commitment to reduce the role anchors play in a batting innings continued, and a number of young players called up for that New Zealand series played starring roles in this one. The ephemeral nature of any game style or philosophy in Pakistan - often dictated by one or two bad results - means this stylistic continuation across these two series is notable in itself.

For Salman, the man at the helm for both tours, it is also non-negotiable. "As long as I'm captain this is how we'll play," he said after Pakistan's seven-wicket win in the third T20I. "I think this is the way to play cricket going forward; that's how the world is playing. You need to put the bowlers and batters under pressure. In New Zealand, this is what we tried to follow, but conditions didn't allow it. But the boys who went there learned a way to be fearless without being careless. That is something we've balanced perfectly this series."

That balance is notoriously difficult to define, let alone achieve; Shane Warne's famous exhortation to "tee off (not recklessly)" perhaps crystallises the extent to which the final outcome dictates how this approach is ultimately viewed. For Pakistan, it is perhaps the performances of Mohammad Haris across these games which appear to suggest they ended up on the right side of that balance. After a pair of early wickets in the first games, Haris began slowly, scoring seven runs in his first eight balls before adopting that fearless approach Salman mentioned; he would smash 24 in his next nine, and Pakistan ended up scoring over 200.

In the next two games, with no such pressure at the outset, Haris would target the bowlers from the get-go, culminating in that memorable unbeaten 46-ball 107 to seal the whitewash. For a player often criticised for rash strokeplay and an inability to build an innings that lasts longer than a handful of deliveries, this series showcased the potential of Pakistan's new approach applied properly.

"Haris gets accused of not using his brain during T20 innings," Salman said. "In this series, when we were 5 for 2 [in the first game], he took calculated risks, and the same today. I think Haris, Saim [Ayub] and Hasan [Nawaz] are players I'd like to turn into matchwinners in my captaincy. These players can perform wonders for Pakistan cricket."

While Salman promised "the door is not closed for anybody" in his T20 set-up, the message of who is being moved on from is fairly unmistakeable. Pakistan have long tried - and ultimately failed - to shut the door on Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam's days, as Pakistan's primary T20 openers feted for their consistency but slated for their conservatism. Even in the recent past, their place at the top was justified due to an absence of players who could construct innings if they fell too early. These three games might not have been against an elite T20 side, but early wickets did not sound alarm bells for Pakistan's innings as they have in the past, with Salman keen to take encouragement from it.

"I'm very happy with this team and the environment we're creating," he said. "I think the team has begun to move in [the right] direction. If conditions change, we'll respect it. Modern-day cricket doesn't mean disrespecting conditions. For me, modern cricket is beating par by about 10-15 runs - both with bat and ball - so you make it easier for the bowlers or the batters. Whatever the conditions, we'll follow what we feel the par score is and then try to beat it.

"Openers' positions don't change. Haris is a player at No. 3 for us because he's a keeper and we like to give him a little rest after that. Hasan is a middle-order hitter, and my number with him is interchangeable. The top three are set, and the rest is situation dependent. I was going to play at No. 4, but we saw we hadn't lost more than one wicket after 10 overs. And we've seen how dangerous Hasan is against spin in the PSL and this series. So we keep the batting order flexible and expect players to be ready to come in."

Salman is well aware of how quickly positions of power within Pakistan cricket can be undermined, but for now, he speaks with the authority and stature of a Pakistan captain who has the breathing space to look beyond just the next game or series. With Mike Hesson, his coach at Islamabad United in the PSL, now Pakistan's white-ball coach, there is a sense the team and the management are on the same page, with the board having given them license to pursue a fresh start however they choose.

"I'm very happy. The young boys performed," Salman said. "The result doesn't matter for me, what matters is how we play cricket. We need to play cricket the way we played these games, and to entertain people. If we put the opposition under pressure, we'll win more games than not.

"There's a year to go for the T20 World Cup, so you can't say it'll be the same players. But I think the core will be the same because I'd like to give these boys as much of a chance as possible. We'd like to have a playing XI for the World Cup ready with players who have experience of playing in this team. This is a young side with 25-30 matches to go. But the core is the same."