Pakistan and Sri Lanka both leave this T20 World Cup with more questions than answers. Pakistan lasted until the final Super Eight fixture, Sri Lanka bowed out well before that, yet neither side looks certain about who should steer the ship over the next cycle.
“I have a question mark,” Urooj Mumtaz admitted when the subject of Pakistan’s T20 captaincy came up. Salman Ali Agha’s record reads four wins, two defeats, but his personal returns – 60 runs in six innings, strike rate 130.43 – hardly scream permanence. Thirty-eight of those runs arrived in one knock against Namibia; the rest of the time he rarely looked settled. Field placements and bowling changes also felt reactive rather than planned, particularly under late-innings pressure.
Mumtaz scanned the national pool for alternatives. “I look down the list of 20 players that Pakistan has right now, and there’s nobody really there who screams ‘captain’ to me. Or someone you pen down and say, ‘right, he’s playing all games and fits in as player number one in all games no matter what the conditions are’,” she said. Babar Azam, Shadab Khan and Shaheen Shah Afridi have each been tried already, while Sahibzada Farhan’s recent form is enticing but, in Mumtaz’s view, “I don’t think he is captain material just yet.”
“At one point, Shadab had put his hand up for captaincy,” she reminded listeners. “I think he has a lot to prove in terms of his all-round cricketing ability. I think he is very short at this moment in terms of his batting and bowling against top-quality sides. Same with Shaheen.” Afridi’s four-wicket haul against England highlighted his threat, yet wickets either side of that night proved elusive.
The logical conclusion, however unromantic, is to keep the status quo for now. “Unless you sort of literally say ‘Sahibzada Farhan – two-year cycle, away you go,’ or somebody like a Saim Ayub, who was dropped but I don’t think he will be dropped for long; I think he deserves a place in that XI,” Mumtaz argued. “Apart from that I don’t see any captain material. So unless Pakistan has got a succession plan in place, probably continue with Salman Ali Agha till they find a replacement.” Her bottom line was clear: “I’d honestly, as much as he’s disappointed with the bat at this point and the many tactical errors that were done, I’d still probably continue with Salman Ali Agha.”
Sri Lanka’s position is no clearer. Dasun Shanaka was reinstated only last December after a brief Charith Asalanka experiment, yet results have scarcely improved. Former all-rounder Farveez Maharoof believes the captaincy burden is weighing heavily. “The first thing Sri Lanka need to figure out is captaincy,” he said, before recalling that Shanaka’s strongest contributions historically arrived when he could focus solely on his own role.
Shanaka’s recent media comments – critical of selection policy and hinting at board interference – have not helped. Public opinion appears split; some admire his honesty, others feel it distracts from on-field duties. Either way, results can’t be hidden: Sri Lanka managed just one Super Eight victory, their batting collapsing three times inside the Powerplay.
Finding an alternative is tricky. Kusal Mendis offers experience, yet his strike-rotation in the middle overs remains a talking point. Wanindu Hasaranga leads the ODI side and is tactically sharp, but workload management is already a headline issue for him. Sadeera Samarawickrama is viewed as a calm presence, though he is not an automatic pick across formats.
Maharoof’s suggestion is to avoid a knee-jerk switch. A decision should follow a thorough post-mortem led by selectors and the performance analyst team, with timelines laid out clearly. If Shanaka continues, roles inside the camp must be clarified: vice-captain empowered, strategy group formalised, data shared transparently so the burden does not fall on one man.
Both boards, in short, face similar problems. The T20 schedule seldom pauses, and the next World Cup qualification cycle begins in six months. Franchise leagues, national training camps and bilateral tours all jostle for the same players’ time. Without a strong leader – or at least a settled one – preparation risks becoming piecemeal.
One option, raised quietly in coaching circles, is to split white-ball leadership completely. A specialist ODI skipper could handle the longer limited-overs format, allowing a younger T20 leader to grow without the extra 50-over noise. England and Australia have tried versions of this to decent effect. Pakistan and Sri Lanka might at least consider it, especially with two Champions Trophy cycles squeezed into the next four years.
For now, though, continuity may win by default. If no candidate convinces the selectors beyond doubt, Agha and Shanaka will probably keep the armband. That feels pragmatic rather than inspirational, yet sometimes stability buys time for talent to surface. Pakistan and Sri Lanka supporters alike will hope that is exactly what happens over the next season and a half.
