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Salman Ali Agha to Lead Pakistan in Remaining ODIs Against Sri Lanka as Shaheen Afridi Falls Ill

COLOMBO: Salman Ali Agha will captain Pakistan in the remaining two One-Day International (ODI) matches against Sri Lanka, replacing Shaheen Shah Afridi who has been sidelined due to illness. The announcement came at the toss for today’s match, where Agha also revealed that spinner Abrar Ahmed has been included in the playing XI.

“Shaheen is unwell and Faheem [Ashraf] also misses out,” Agha explained. “Abrar Ahmed and Wasim Jr were added in.” He added, “We are going to bowl first, we want to start well — if you don’t start well in the white-ball game, then you end up chasing the game.”

Shaheen Afridi’s appointment as Pakistan’s ODI captain was only recent, taking over from Mohammad Rizwan on November 10th. He led the team to a 2-1 series victory against South Africa in his inaugural ODI assignment as captain.

Rizwan had a tenure of twenty ODI matches as Captain, securing nine wins and suffering eleven defeats. Last year, Rizwan was appointed captain for both ODI and T20I teams and Pakistan lost all four T20Is under his leadership. He was removed as T20I captain with Agha taking over.

This unexpected change in leadership throws a curveball into the series against Sri Lanka as Pakistan looks to build momentum heading into future competitions.

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