Pakistan head coach Mike Hesson on Wednesday said Pakistan were preparing “as best Pakistan can” for a clash with India at the Asian Games, but Pakistan stressed that there was plenty of cricket to be played before Pakistan and India could meet.
India and Pakistan are on opposite sides of the men’s Asian Games draw, and India cannot face Pakistan in the semi-finals. A meeting is possible in either the gold-medal match or the bronze-medal play-off on Oct 3, provided India and Pakistan negotiate the stages successfully.
India are the benchmark in white-ball cricket at the moment, and Pakistan’s challenge is to catch up to that,” Hesson told reporters on the sidelines of Pakistan’s pre‑departure training camp at the National Bank Stadium.
“If Pakistan gets an opportunity to play India, Pakistan can certainly put India under pressure like Pakistan was able to in the final of the Asia Cup.”
Hesson, however, said Pakistan and India could not afford to look far ahead.
“There is a lot of cricket to be played between now and being able to play in a final, for Pakistan and India. So Pakistan is not getting far ahead of itself,” he said.
The Asian Games squad comes together from the Pakistan Shaheens and the national side, Hesson said. The Asian Games squad gives the tournament a chance to test players.
The Asian Games squad will not be the same from a selection point of view. The Asian Games squad will change.
Hesson also lowered suggestions that Sahibzada Farhan’s appointment as Pakistan captain for the Asian Games means a longer‑term leadership role.
The tournament was an opportunity for Sahibzada Farhan to gain experience, Hesson said. Whether Sahibzada Farhan continues as captain will be decided by the selection committee and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).
That discussion will happen later. At the moment I am really looking forward to working with Sahibzada Farhan. I have enjoyed the three days, Hesson said.
‘Wider progress’
Asked about Pakistan’s performances across formats, Hesson urged against lumping the Test, ODI and T20 teams. He said the T20 team’s record over the 15 months did not support the idea that Pakistan cricket as a whole was in decline.
“From a T20 perspective, the performance of the T20 side over the 15 months has been around the third- or fourth-best team in the world in terms of win percentage ” he said.
He noted that Pakistan had moved up from eighth to fifth in the T20 rankings since he took charge and had gained 30 points in the past 15 months.
“We’ve only done that by winning series not in Pakistan but series in Dubai, etc., series in America, whatever. So we’ve won a lot of series over the 15 months in T20 cricket,” he said.
Hesson admitted that Pakistan’s repeated defeats against India still mattered deeply to fans. He called India the “benchmark for all cricket fans” but said those results should not hide the broader progress made by the T20 side.
He said the Test side was currently struggling, while the ODI team was still shaping up ahead of the year’s World Cup.
“One-day cricket we’re developing heading up to a World Cup, and we’ve certainly improved our performance in the 12 months, but we’re by no means a finished product ” he said.
Hesson also highlighted Pakistan’s progress in major tournaments, saying the team had reached the Asia Cup final after a long stretch of failing to go past early stages.
“Up until the Asia Cup, a year and a half ago, Pakistan had not made it past the round for three major events and had not even made it to the quarter-finals ” he said.
“In the Asia Cup, we won every game except India. We made the final. We lost to India. They were better than us.”
At the T20 World Cup, Pakistan reached the Super Eight stage before losing to England, who later reached the final.
“We lost to England by two balls ” Hesson said.
He also pointed out that Pakistan had a washed-out match against New Zealand.
“We can’t do anything about the rain. Outside of that, we won every game.”
Hesson said expectations for Pakistan cricket should stay high. Warned that rebuilding would take time.
“Our expectations for Pakistan should be very high. We also can’t go from not even making the top eight to expecting to win every game. There is a bit of a process that we need to take to do that ” he said.
Pakistan will enter the Asian Games men’s cricket competition at the quarter- stage with their first match scheduled for Monday, Sept 28. The preliminary round begins on Thursday with Afghanistan taking on Japan in the opening match.
