Pakistan captain Salman Ali Agha opined that his team has “saved their best” for Sunday’s blockbuster Asia Cup final against India. Despite the drubbings in the last two fixtures between the neighbours in Dubai, Salman said Pakistan remained confident of pipping the favourites in a high-pressure encounter.
“There is always a lot of pressure on Pakistan and India when they play each other, and if we say that there is no pressure, then it is wrong. Both the teams will have the same amount of pressure,” Salman said on the match eve in Dubai.
“We have made more mistakes than them and that is why we have not won matches. If we make fewer mistakes than them, we will win. Whichever team makes fewer mistakes will win, and we will try to make fewer mistakes.
“Inshallah, you will see us winning tomorrow. Our attempt is to play our best cricket. And we know that if we play our best cricket and execute our plans for 40 overs, then we can beat any team. And we will try to do that.”
While the majority of the matches in this Asia Cup have been rather lopsided, controversy has been a recurring theme of the tournament, be it the handshake row, Suryakumar Yadav’s remarks in the presentation ceremony, Sahibzada Farhan’s gun-firing celebration or Haris Rauf’s boundary-line gestures. Salman, though, defended his players’ right to wear their hearts on their sleeves, as long as they didn’t cross a line.
“It rests with the individual, everyone has their own way. If someone wants to be aggressive on the ground, then why not? Because if you take away aggression from a fast bowler, then nothing is left.
“Every player knows how to deal with his emotions. As a captain, I give a free hand to any player on how to react on the ground, unless he is disrespecting someone or doing something disrespectful to the country.
“If you snatch gestures from a fast bowler, I don’t think he will be as effective as he should be. And if an individual wants to be aggressive on the ground, most welcome whether he is from our team or theirs, I have no problem with that.”
Salman also expressed his displeasure at the absence of post-match cordiality between the teams during this tournament.
“I started playing cricket from 2007, at Under-16 level. I have never seen that there hasn’t been a handshake between two teams. My Abbu [father] is a big cricket fan, and he went back 20 more years and said it’s never happened that the two teams haven’t shaken hands. Even I can’t think of a time when it’s not happened.
40+ years. Countless battles. But never this. !
For the first time ever — India vs Pakistan in an
Asia Cup FINAL. The wait is over.! ✨#INDvPAK #Cricket @BCCI pic.twitter.com/EIr6MVejCX— Doordarshan Sports (@ddsportschannel) September 27, 2025
“Even when India-Pakistan relations were worse, there was always a handshake. So, I don’t think not having a handshake is good for cricket.”
Quizzed about how his players should deal with the maddening external noise around India-Pakistan matches, a challenge India captain Suryakumar Yadav had addressed by advising his team to follow a digital detox.
“There is no message, because we cannot control the things happening outside the ground. In our team, we try to control what we can control. Whatever the media is doing, or whatever people are saying, is not in our control. And it doesn’t matter to us.
“We have come here to play good cricket, and we will play good cricket and leave. Our goal is to win the Asia Cup, and we will come to the ground for it tomorrow.”
