Salman Ali Agha drops another major hint on Pakistan's T20 World Cup 2026 plans; captain says ‘…when we go to Sri Lanka’

Salman Ali Agha dropped another major hint of Pakistan's confirmed participation in the upcoming T20 World Cup 2026 when the skipper spoke about their preparations for the mega event, starting on February 7 in India and Sri Lanka. Pakistan are yet to officially confirm their participation for the T20 World Cup 2026.

Having already announced their 15-member squad for the global competition, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief Mohsin Naqvi added a political colour, stating a final call on the team's participation will be made by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Naqvi's stance came after Bangladesh were removed from the T20 World Cup 2026 by the International Cricket Council (ICC), accusing the apex body of double standards. The PCB highlighted that if India are allowed to play Champions Trophy in Dubai at a time when Pakistan was hosts, why not Bangladesh were allowed to play in Sri Lanka.

Naqvi stated that the final decision will be announced by the PCB on Monday (February 2). Salman Agha's remark during the coin toss before the second T20I against Australia on Saturday confirmed Pakistan's participation amid all the drama by PCB.

During the coin toss, Salman Agha was asked by the presenter that the pitches in Lahore in the ongoing T20I series are kind of similar to what they will get in Sri Lanka and it will help them. "These kind of pitches we're going to get when we go to Sri Lanka," Salman Agha replied, thus confirming their T20 World Cup 2026 participation.

It must be noted that Pakistan will play all their Group B games in Sri Lanka. “And that's what we're making here and hopefully we can have a lot of practice here and then when we go there we don't really have a problem with that,” added the Pakistan skipper.

PCB leak T20 World Cup plan on whatsapp

Earlier, just a day back, Pakistan's T20 World Cup 2026 plans were leaked by the team media manager on Whatsapp which was soon deleted. The incident occurred on Friday when the PCB media manager wrote about their plans with pacer Mohammad Wasim Jnr in regards to the ongoing T20I series against Australia.

Based on a RevSportz report, a message on the PCB media group on whatsapp at 8:49 PM read, “Update on Pakistan T20I Squad. Fast bowler Mohammad Wasim Jnr has been released from Pakistan's T20I squad for the remaining two matches of the series against Australia. Pakistan will compete the series with the 15-member squad that will travel onwards for the ICC Cricket World Cup.”

However, the message was deleted exact two minutes later with an updated text that said, “Update on Pakistan T20I Squad. Fast bowler Mohammad Wasim Jnr has been released from Pakistan's T20I squad for the remaining two matches of the series against Australia.”

Pakistan's T20 World Cup 2026 squad

Salman Ali Agha (c), Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Khawaja Mohammad Nafay, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Salman Mirza, Naseem Shah, Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shadab Khan, Usman Khan, Usman Tariq