The year 2025 has been somewhat of a roller-coaster for the Pakistan national cricket team, since they have played a large number of matches in all formats but have not succeeded much. The team was eliminated from the group stage of the Champions Trophy, but performed well enough in the UAE series and also made it to the finals of the Asia Cup.
At present, the national side is competing in yet another T20I tri-series, where they are under the captaincy of Salman Ali Agha and have won all their matches, thus going unbeaten. The T20I captain has been brilliant in the ODIs and Tests but has not been able to translate that to the T20I format. Nevertheless, Agha has already achieved a remarkable milestone by surpassing MS Dhoni and Rahul Dravid in one record.
Salman Agha’s surpassing of India’s iconic pair in a remarkable accomplishment
The leader of the Pakistan cricket team has the most international matches played with 54 this year, such a number being the largest ever for any player in a single calendar year. He went past India’s MS Dhoni and Rahul Dravid, who played 53 matches each. Dravid accomplished the milestone in 1999, while MSD was active in 2007.
The player has played in 5 Test, 17 ODI, and 32 T20I matches this year, which adds up to a total of 54 matches for him. Notably, there are still matches left for Pakistan this year.
Salman Agha’s mixed fortunes in 2025
Salman Agha has had a mixed bag of 2025 – in terms of both batting and captaincy. Under his captaincy in T20Is, Pakistan has seen consistency, as the team made it to the final of the tri-nations and also to the Asia Cup final, only to be vanquished by India.
Besides, the burden of captaincy has an impact on his T20I batting as the batter has only 113 strike rate in 2025.
On the other hand, Salman Agha has been a different batter in ODIs and Tests as the right-handed batsman has scored 667 runs in 17 ODIs, and 277 runs in five Tests this year.
