Hesson urges facts over emotion in assessing Pakistan cricket

Pakistan head coach Mike Hesson has urged critics to “use facts rather than emotion” when assessing the country’s cricket, saying the three formats should not be judged together and highlighting the T20 side’s progress over the past 15 months.

“Let’s try and use facts rather than emotion, because no doubt we can’t put them all together because they’re different players,” Hesson told reporters.

He said Pakistan’s Test team was struggling, while the ODI side was still developing ahead of the World Cup. However, he rejected the suggestion that the T20 side was also in decline, saying its performance over the past 15 months had placed it around the third or fourth-best team in the world in terms of win percentage.

“When I came in, we were number eight in the world in T20 cricket. We’re now number five in the world, and we’ve gone up 30 points over 15 months,” Hesson said.

He added that the improvement had come through series victories both at home and abroad, including in Dubai and the United States.

Hesson calls India the white-ball benchmark

On the possibility of Pakistan facing India again, Hesson acknowledged that India currently set the standard in white-ball cricket but said Pakistan would be prepared to challenge them if the opportunity arose.

“India are the benchmark in terms of white-ball cricket at the moment, and our challenge is to catch up to that,” he said.

Hesson, however, cautioned against looking too far ahead, pointing out that both teams still had several matches to play before they could potentially meet in a final.

Shadab gets leadership opportunity

Hesson said Shadab Khan would have an opportunity to gain leadership experience during the Asian Games, where the squad will feature a combination of players from Shaheen’s team and the national side.

“It’s a good opportunity for Shadab Khan to keep in the Asian Games and to get some experience doing it,” he said.

Asked whether Shadab could continue as Pakistan’s T20 captain, Hesson said the decision would be taken by the selection committee and the PCB leadership at a later stage.

Coach points to progress in major events

Hesson also challenged the perception that Pakistan had consistently struggled in major tournaments.

He said that before the Asia Cup, Pakistan had failed to progress beyond the first round in three major events. At the Asia Cup, he noted, Pakistan won every game except against India and reached the final.

At the T20 World Cup, Pakistan also progressed to the quarter-finals after previously failing to reach the last eight. Hesson said the team lost to England by a narrow margin, while a match against New Zealand was washed out.

“We need to obviously have our expectations for Pakistan very high,” he said. “But 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.”

Asian Games squad to feature new players

Hesson said the Asian Games squad would not be identical to Pakistan’s regular T20 side, describing it as a combination of Shaheen’s team and players from the national setup.

He said the tournament would therefore provide an opportunity to assess new players while giving Shadab experience in a leadership role.

Hesson maintained that Pakistan had made progress in T20 cricket but still had work to do, particularly against teams such as India that currently set the benchmark in the format.