Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Instrument
Communication Breakdown
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
General None Reported / Taken
Human Factors
On pushback from gate; ground crew asked me to set brake because they had an issue with the tow bar. It was difficult to understand what they were saying outside of normal communication procedures because the tug operator spoke poor English. The ground crew was in the process of switching tow bars when I selected the external horn and informed the crew to remove all equipment and provide me a wing walker for the turnout as I had plenty of room to accomplish the taxi out. I watched the upper ECAM and waited for the 'NW STRG DISC' message to extinguish as confirmation of pin being removed. I also received a 'wand up with pin flag in hand' signal/salute. Taxi out was normal. On climbout; Center called and said the ground crew asked them to inform me that the nose wheel steering disconnect pin was still in the nose gear. I immediately knew this was false as I had confirmed before taxi out that it was removed and also the aircraft would not be able to be taxied with the pin installed. I contacted ops on company frequency and informed them that no pin was in the nose wheel. Again; I had a hard time understanding them as their English was poor.  I then received a message from Dispatch and my understanding was they had lost the pin; assumed it was on the nose gear and then later found the pin. As a precaution; on arrival; I inspected the nose wheel and found no discrepancies. As a side note; it appeared that the tow bar being used was much smaller than normal. The tow bar they were going to swap it with was much larger.Cause - Poor English and communication.
Air carrier Captain reported communication issues with the pushback crew resulted in the flight crew being advised during flight there was confusion as to whether or not the tow bar pin had been left in. It was later determined the ground crew had lost the pin after removal.