Australian Men’s Cricket Team vs Pakistan National Cricket Team Match: Pakistan captain Salman Ali Agha won the toss and elected to bat first in the third and final T20I against Australia at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on Sunday, February 1, 2026.Pakistan have already sealed the three-match series and will aim for a clean sweep, while Australia are keen to finish the tour on a positive note.
Explaining the decision, Salman said Pakistan were confident with their balance, especially the spin options. “Batting approach gives you a lot of comfort in terms of being in a good headspace, the way Pakistan seem to be batting. There’s definitely a more positive intent. Because of the pitches, it slows down after 10 overs, so we have to go hard in the powerplay to make sure we get enough runs, because it gets difficult later. That’s why we’re taking this approach. So one plus is that we have five spinners. For me, it’s very hard to bowl every single bowler in 20 overs. But on the other side, it’s a luxury for me to have five world-class spinners, and I’m very happy with that. I think we’ve ticked most of the boxes. We just want to continue and play good cricket the way we’ve been doing for the last six months. We just want to keep chipping in every single game,” he said.
Australia captain Mitchell Marsh said his side was aiming for a stronger showing after losses in the first two matches. “Hopefully we get a chaseable total today. We’ve got to look at the conditions over the last few games and hopefully we can respond to that. Any time you’re in these circumstances, there are always lessons to come out of it. We need to keep our intent, and it’s an important game for us to hopefully finish the series with a win,” Marsh said.
AUS vs PAK 3rd T20I Playing XIs
Pakistan (Playing XI): Saim Ayub, Fakhar Zaman, Salman Agha(c), Babar Azam, Khawaja Nafay(w), Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Abrar Ahmed
Australia (Playing XI): Mitchell Marsh(c), Matthew Short, Cameron Green, Matt Renshaw, Marcus Stoinis, Josh Philippe(w), Mitchell Owen, Cooper Connolly, Ben Dwarshuis, Matthew Kuhnemann, Adam Zampa
