Pakistan men's team head coach Mike Hesson has described India as the “benchmark” in white-ball cricket, while insisting that his side is not struggling despite a series of defeats against their arch-rivals. Hesson made the comments during Pakistan’s pre-departure training camp ahead of the Asian Games.“India are the benchmark in terms of white-ball cricket at the moment, and our challenge is to catch up to that,” Hesson said while speaking to reporters at the training camp.India have held the upper hand in recent white-ball meetings between the two sides. In their last 10 ODIs against Pakistan, India have won eight, with one match ending without a result. India have also won their last six T20I meetings against Pakistan, including three victories during last year’s Asia Cup.
Pakistan are coming off a difficult tour of England, where they suffered a Test series whitewash. The tour also saw seven players dropped after the second Test, while red-ball head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed and bowling coach Umar Gul were sacked. “The Test team is struggling and we are all well aware of it,” he said. “But the win percentage of the T20I team in the last 15 months has been third or the fourth best. We have lost to India on multiple occasions and that is the benchmark of all the Pakistani teams, we understand that. But to suggest that the T20 side is at a low [is not correct].”
Pakistan’s Asian Games squad is captained by Sahibzada Farhan, with several senior names, including Babar Azam, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Mohammad Rizwan, absent. However, Hesson does not see their absence as a concern.
“Despite the absence of Babar Azam, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Mohammad Rizwan, this is a balanced and aggressive team,” Hesson said.
Pakistan have not played T20I cricket since the T20 World Cup, where they crashed out in the Super Eight stage. However, Hesson does not see the absence of the senior players as a problem. “We are preparing as best as we can and if we get an opportunity to play [India], we will certainly put them under pressure as we were able to do in the final of the Asia Cup,” he said.“There is a lot of cricket to be played between now and the final for both sides, so we are not getting too far ahead of ourselves.” Pakistan and India are in different groups at the Asia Cup and can only play against each other if they qualify for the final or in the bronze medal match.
Pakistan and India are among the four seeded teams in the Asian Games, alongside Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. India, the defending champions, will begin their campaign against the Group A runners-up on September 28, while Pakistan will face the Group B runners-up in the quarter-finals on the same day.
Sahibzada Farhan (captain), Abdul Samad (vice-captian), Abrar Ahmed, Ahmed Daniyal, Akif Javed, Ali Raza, Arafat Minhas, Haider Ali, Hasan Nawaz, Maaz Sadaqat, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Saad Masood, Saim Ayub, Sufyan Moqim and Usman Khan (wicket-keeper)