Pakistan’s white-ball head coach Mike Hesson has completed his assessment of the team’s recent struggles in international outings, and the New Zealander has pointed to the team’s underwhelming batting displays that have consistently left them behind the modern curve, especially in T20I cricket.
Speaking candidly about the team’s shortcomings during the ongoing training camp for the Bangladesh series, Mike Hesson said the root of the problem lies in a lack of strike rate paired with an insufficient volume of runs.
“No doubt strike rate is important in T20 cricket,” Hesson said. “But you have to combine it with a volume of runs.”
Pakistan’s approach in the shortest format has long been criticised for being overly cautious, especially during the middle overs. While several individual batters boast healthy averages, their inability to accelerate at crucial junctures has left Pakistan’s T20I side trailing behind the rest of the world.
“There’s a good reason why our ranking in T20 cricket is as low as it is,” Mike Hesson noted. “Our strike rates from a batting point of view are not high enough.”
The former New Zealand coach was brought in to help solve that very problem and modernize Pakistan’s white-ball approach. His influence was already visible during the recent T20I series, where the team adopted a more expansive batting strategy which proved to be effective.
“We certainly made some shifts in that last series to play a more expansive game of cricket and probably catch up with the rest of the world, as that is the way the modern game is,” Mike Hesson added.
For Hesson, it’s not just about a marginal improvement — it’s a complete rethink. He explained that Pakistan often fall short by 30 to 40 runs in competitive matches, which is too steep a gap to ignore.
“It’s not just a matter of going from 125 to 150,” he said. “It’s a matter of increasing what you can offer because we’re no doubt often 30-40 runs short with the bat. So, we need to find a way of getting that.”
With the Asia Cup and the T20 World Cup in the offing, Mike Hesson’s comments serve as a clear signal: if Pakistan want to contend with the likes of India, England, and Australia, their batting unit must adapt and quickly.
The team’s new approach will face another stern test in Bangladesh later this month, and if Mike Hesson’s team passes with flying colours, the hope of Pakistan’s T20I side returning to its former glory will be reignited once more.
