Karachi, September 23, 2026: Pakistan head coach Mike Hesson said on Wednesday that his team was preparing “as best we can” for a possible meeting with India at the Asian Games, while stressing that both sides had plenty of cricket to play before such a clash could materialise.
Pakistan and India are on opposite sides of the men’s Asian Games draw and cannot meet in the semi-finals. They could face each other in the gold-medal match or bronze-medal play-off on October 3, provided both teams progress through the earlier stages.
“India are the benchmark in white-ball cricket at the moment, and our 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 we get an opportunity to play them, we can certainly put them under pressure, like we were able to in the final of the Asia Cup,” he added.
Hesson, however, cautioned against looking too far ahead.
“There’s a lot of cricket to be played between now and being able to play in a final for both sides. So we’re not getting too far ahead of ourselves,” he said.
Hesson said Pakistan’s Asian Games squad combined players from the Pakistan Shaheens and the national team, providing an opportunity to assess emerging players.
He also played down suggestions that Sahibzada Farhan’s appointment as captain for the tournament necessarily indicated a long-term leadership role.
He described the Asian Games as a “good opportunity” for Farhan to gain experience but said decisions about his future in the role would be taken by the selection committee and the Pakistan Cricket Board.
“That’s a discussion for down the line. But at the moment, I’m really looking forward to working with Sahibzada Farhan. I’ve enjoyed the last three days,” Hesson said.
Asked about Pakistan’s performances across formats, Hesson cautioned against assessing Test, ODI and T20 cricket as one unit.
He said Pakistan’s T20 side had been among the world’s top-performing teams over the past 15 months based on win percentage.
“From a T20 perspective, the performance of the T20 side over the last 15 months has been around about the third- or fourth-best team in the world, in terms of win percentage,” he said.
According to Hesson, Pakistan had climbed from eighth to fifth in the T20 rankings since he took charge and gained 30 ranking points during the past 15 months.
He said the improvement had come through series victories both at home and abroad, including in Dubai and the United States.
Hesson acknowledged that Pakistan’s repeated defeats against India remained significant for supporters, describing India as the “benchmark for all Pakistani cricket fans”, but said those results should not overshadow the T20 side’s overall progress.
Hesson said Pakistan’s Test side was currently struggling, while the ODI team was developing ahead of next 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 last 12 months, but we’re by no means a finished product,” he said.
He also pointed to Pakistan’s recent performances in major tournaments, noting that the team had reached the Asia Cup final after previously failing to progress beyond the early stages of three major events.
“In the Asia Cup we won every game except India. We made the final. We lost to India. They were better than us,” Hesson said.
At the T20 World Cup, Pakistan reached the Super Eight stage before losing to England, who subsequently reached the final.
“We lost to England by about two balls,” Hesson said, while also noting that Pakistan had a match against New Zealand washed out.
“We can’t do anything about the rain. Outside of that, we won every game,” he added.
Hesson said expectations from Pakistan cricket should remain high but cautioned that rebuilding would take time.
“Our expectations for Pakistan should be very high. 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,” he said.
Pakistan will enter the men’s Asian Games cricket competition at the quarter-final stage, with their first match scheduled for September 28. The preliminary round begins on Thursday, with Afghanistan facing Japan in the opening match.
