Pakistan drops Salman Ali Agha and gives Sahibzada Farhan the T20 side for Sri Lanka

Pakistan removed Salman Ali Agha as T20 captain on Monday and left him out of the squad for this month's series against Sri Lanka. Sahibzada Farhan takes the job. The three T20s start on Friday in Rawalpindi. Agha remains in the one-day side, where Shaheen Shah Afridi keeps the captaincy for a tri-series that also includes England and opens on 18 October, again in Rawalpindi, against Sri Lanka.

Farhan's case is on the page. He led Pakistan to a silver medal at the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, losing the final to India by 19 runs at Korogi Athletic Park in Nisshin on 3 October. At the T20 World Cup in March he was the tournament's leading run-scorer, 383 runs at a strike rate of 160. Cricinfo noted that his Asian Games batting did not match that return, and that the appointment still follows a year in which he had already finished as runner-up with Pakistan at the Asia Cup. The board has chosen the World Cup number and the silver medal over continuity with Agha.

Who travels, and who does not

The T20 squad is Farhan as captain, Abdul Samad, Abrar Ahmed, Arafat Minhas, Fakhar Zaman, Hasan Nawaz, Muhammad Imran Randhawa, Khawaja Nafay as wicketkeeper, Maaz Sadaqat, Naseem Shah, Razaullah, Saim Ayub, Mohammad Salman Mirza, Shadab Khan and Sufiyan Moqim. Agha's name is not on it. Babar Azam's is not on it either. Babar returns in the ODI squad, alongside Agha, under Afridi.

The ODI list is Afridi as captain, Abrar Ahmed, Salman Ali Agha, Arafat Minhas, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Muhammad Ghazi Ghori as wicketkeeper, Haris Rauf, Hasan Nawaz, Naseem Shah, Razaullah, Saad Baig as a second keeper, Saim Ayub and Shadab Khan. Two competitions, two captains, and a split that puts the senior batting names in the 50-over side while the T20 side is built around Farhan, Fakhar, Saim, Shadab and Naseem. Haris Rauf, the fast bowler, is in the ODI group and not in the T20 group. That is a selection fact, not a fitness bulletin. The board did not attach an injury note to the omission.

Why the timing is awkward

The Asian Games final was on 3 October. The squad announcement was on 5 October. Farhan has had two days between a final he lost by 19 runs and a captaincy he will exercise on Friday. Rawalpindi in October is a pitch that has taken spin and, on some nights, rewarded the new ball. Sri Lanka arrive for three T20s and then stay in the same city for the tri-series opener. Pakistan will field a different captain, and a different batting order, within a fortnight in the same ground.

Agha's removal is the harder call to reverse. A captain left out of the format, rather than merely replaced and kept in the XI, has no dressing-room role on the T20 tour. His route back is the ODI tri-series, where he is a player under Afridi, and any later T20 window the selectors open. Farhan's route is simpler and shorter. He has Friday, and two more nights, to show that a World Cup tally of 383 and a Games silver translate into a side that can chase or set against Sri Lanka without Babar and without Agha.

The India match sitting behind the job

The Games final is the match the new captain cannot leave in Japan. Pakistan pushed India close and lost by 19 runs. Farhan's own batting in the two Games matches did not repeat the World Cup. Selectors who hand a captaincy on a Monday after a Saturday final are betting that the leadership, not the two quiet innings, is the relevant sample. Sri Lanka will not be India. They will be the first side to see the bet. If the three Rawalpindi nights go badly, the board has Babar and Agha already parked in the ODI squad, available for a conversation it has chosen not to have this week.