Salman Agha: Pakistan players 'need to become superstars' for PSL to grow

Salman Agha laughs drily, as one sometimes does when nothing is amusing about what they just heard. Perhaps starting off by asking him while he's dressed in Islamabad United's kit if T20 cricket is his least natural format isn't the best way to break the ice.

"This is just something that people say," he says coolly. "I can't influence that. I feel I can play all three formats and don't focus on what people say."

The ice remains unbroken. He is, after all, speaking the day after an unbeaten 34-ball 41 in the opening game of the PSL 2025, showing his range as a batter in this format. He came in on a slow pitch as Lahore Qalandars prowled, but gritted his way through early jitters alongside Colin Munro before the pair helped United romp to victory. This ability to do what needs to be done comes so naturally to Salman so he wonders how can a charge of unsuitability to a format that rewards such problem-solving stand?

But then again, it is easy to become captive to the moment, and hard to comprehend how much things have changed. Salman may have emerged as United's canniest pick last year when they sprung for him in the Silver category, primarily because there was little tangible data to back him. His career T20 strike rate across 63 matches was under 112, and his numbers in the PSL, before he joined United in 2024, were even more ordinary: 99.5 at an average a shade over 15. The previous two seasons, he'd gone unpicked at the PSL altogether; he'd never played a T20I and his last T20 of any sorts came in September 2022.

Stuck in at No. 3, Salman was not so much a player reinvented as one incarnated afresh. He caressed his way to an unbeaten 31-ball 64 in his first game at United, his highest innings strike rate in his career. He would show it was more than a one-off, finishing as United's second-highest scorer last year, with 310 at 140.27. By the end of the month, he had lifted the PSL trophy.

"The two to three seasons I didn't play in the PSL taught me a lot," Salman tells ESPNcricinfo. "I watched it on TV and picked up a few things. I knew if I got another opportunity, I would know what to work on and what to improve.

"The first thing was game awareness. Sometimes in T20 cricket, you think you have very little time, but you have a lot more time than you think. If you take the game deep, there's lots of time. I used to rush and force things. But now I've realised that if I'm chasing, there's enough time. Even if the asking rate is ten, I'm calculating how to do it and what approach to take rather than trying to hit every ball."

It was in evidence in this year's PSL opener. United have a reputation for powering through modest chases; in 2021 they wrapped up a chase of 130 with ten overs remaining, the largest margin of victory in the tournament's history. In a qualifier during their victorious campaign in 2018, they reached the final by chasing 155 in 12.3 overs. Here, though, the plan was to keep wickets in hand and minimise risk, Salman scored just 6 in his first 11 balls, allowing the asking rate to creep upwards.

In the absence of any recent T20 data to be considered relevant, United's team management, including coach Mike Hesson and captain Shadab Khan, turned to less obvious cues. Since 2022, Salman has established himself in Pakistan's ODI and Test sides with his flexibility and streetwise match-awareness. He isn't a naturally powerful striker of the ball, but his manipulation of the field to create scoring opportunities for himself in ODIs. A knack for contributing useful runs with the lower order made him a valuable feature in Test cricket.

"We broke down his data from ODIs and [looked at] how he had upped his game," Rehan-ul-Haq, United's general manager, who has been with the side since the league's inception, told ESPNcricinfo. "We looked at his white-ball numbers and broke them down, and they showed huge improvement. His entry points in most of the ODI games were at times when the team was in trouble. And we needed a player who could attack but also stabilise on tougher pitches."

That last bit signals an evolution within United's ethos. Even in Salman's absence over the last couple of games as United manage a niggle, the three-time champions have shown they can do both offence and pragmatism with great effectiveness. Against Karachi Kings on Sunday, they took over 17 overs on another slow pitch to chase down 128, securing their position at the top with four wins in four.

Salman feels this additional arrow in United's quiver hasn't been fully appreciated yet, pushing back against what he feels is a caricature of United as wantonly gung-ho. "People feel Islamabad go all out come what may," he says. "But people need to understand we respect conditions. We do play high-risk cricket, but we always assess the ground and pitch conditions. It's not like the pitch demands 160, and we get all out for 100 trying to score 200 or 220.

"Like [in the first game], we needed to chase 140, and we took 17 overs to do it while losing only two wickets. We knew it would be difficult for new batters to start, so Munro and I were committed to finishing the game off. We don't just slog aimlessly; we assess what the game requires. And when you do that, you're more likely to execute your plans rather than discounting conditions and being rigid."

If Salman's upturn in fortunes in the shortest format proves sustainable - he has since gone on not only to play T20Is, but also become the format's full-time Pakistan captain - it replicates a trend he has managed to produce in each format since pushing his way into the national side at the relatively advanced age of 28. Since Salman made his debut, no Pakistani has a higher ODI strike rate [minimum 20 innings], which he has achieved averaging over 42. In Test cricket, despite usually batting at No. 7 and having to take risks alongside the tail, his Test average is only bettered in that time by Saud Shakeel [minimum 20 innings], with a strike rate secondary only to Shan Masood.

"I've worked on my game a lot. I knew if I wanted to become a three-format player, what work I needed to put in, and what aspects of my game I needed to work on. In international cricket, if you're doing well, it doesn't happen by accident. You have to raise your level and adopt new skills. And when I put that work in, I began to see results."

Salman credits the maturity in his game to the years of domestic cricket he had under his belt before getting called up for the Pakistan side. He accepts the gulf in quality between the domestic structure and the top flight, but it has provided him with a base that meant the bottom didn't fall out once the international cricket's spotlight began shining on him.

"[My success] is a mixture of two things: belief in my game and experience in first-class cricket," he says. "I think you should have two-three seasons, 30-40 games in first-class cricket. It helps you in international cricket, because what you encounter there, you will have faced in some form in first-class cricket. If you're thrown straight into international cricket, it's harder to cope."

There is a sense, then, of a man having found his feet: not just in the more general, philosophical sense, but also physically. United's motto is a two-word mission statement: Dimagh se, roughly translating to "using the mind". It stands against the more dominant strand of cricketing philosophy in Pakistan, one especially espoused by his former team Lahore Qalandars, one that prioritises the emotional frenzy that has seen Pakistan cricket go, as Nasser Hussain famously put it "one minute down, next minute up". It might as well have been written to define Salman's canny adaptability.

Shadab Khan is one of his closest friends in the game, someone whose thoughts on the game closely mirror Salman's own, to the extent that Salman feels himself to be captain when Shadab is leading the side.

"United have a template to follow, and luckily, it's very similar to the template I'm trying to adopt for my own game," Salman laughs. "Our approaches suit each other. Lahore and Islamabad are very different, of course. When I played with Lahore, I used to just think about taking the game deep. I've now realised that T20 cricket is there to be enjoyed, and to go after my shots. I've tried to adjust my game such that if I have to attack from the first ball, I should be able to. Islamabad say play your natural game."

Even so, Salman is aware there is debate over what his natural game is. It remains inescapably true that Salman's T20 numbers everywhere aside from United aren't quite at the level expected of the best batters in the format. In 11 T20Is, he averages 24 with Pakistan at a strike rate of just under 117, and Pakistan have lost eight of them.

To boot, it isn't clear that he's suited to the middle-order role he currently has with the national side. Pakistan's selectors initially considered leaving him out of the squad for the New Zealand T20Is altogether before, in typically frenetic style, throwing him into the side and sticking the armband on him.

Salman has, perhaps wisely "stopped thinking about [my batting position]". "Whatever role the team gives me, number three or six or seven, I'm ready. As Pakistan captain, I'd try to bat wherever is the hardest to bat."

It's perhaps the first stiff, media-trained answer from an otherwise refreshingly candid professional whose filter does not strain the personality out of his answers. Talking about international cricket, after all, is much more serious business, especially at a time when there's little for Pakistan and their supporters to cheer about. And while Salman accepts that a downturn in fortunes has not helped the PSL, he feels the league's growth does not solely depend on the national side's fortunes.

"No league can grow without local players stepping up. The Pakistan players will need to become superstars; that's the only way the league will improve. Foreign players may be available for some years and other years, [they may] not. But the local stars are the ones who elevate a league. In the top five leagues, their local players have a huge role. So if we step up, this league can grow."

Few could argue Salman hasn't done his bit in that regard.