RAWALPINDI: Pakistan’s white-ball head coach Mike Hesson on Monday defended the team management’s recent selection decisions and insisted the national side was making “real good progress” in limited-overs cricket despite criticism following a turbulent few months for Pakistan cricket.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the national training camp at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium ahead of the upcoming three-match ODI series against Australia, Hesson said Pakistan’s white-ball setup should not be judged through the lens of the national team’s struggles in other formats.
Pakistan host Australia in Rawalpindi and Lahore from May 30 to June 4 in a series being viewed as part of the team’s preparations for the 2027 ODI World Cup.
“Most of the players weren’t even involved in red-ball cricket,” Hesson said when asked whether recent Test setbacks had affected morale in the ODI camp. “We’ve been training in Lahore for the last 10 days, played a number of warm-up games and have been very much focused on this series.”
The former New Zealand coach said Pakistan had shown encouraging signs in white-ball cricket over the past year and stressed that performances in one format should not dictate perceptions in another.
“There’s confidence in terms of our white-ball cricket,” he said. “We’ve made really good progress in the last 12 months.”
Hesson also responded to criticism surrounding the omission of wicket-keeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan from the ODI squad, clarifying that the move was part of a broader attempt to assess combinations ahead of the next World Cup cycle.
Pakistan recently named a 16-member squad for the Australia series led by Shaheen Shah Afridi, with Babar Azam among several senior players returning, while Rizwan was left out.
Hesson rejected suggestions that Rizwan had been unfairly sidelined, pointing out that the wicket-keeper had already been out of Pakistan’s T20 plans before his arrival as coach.
“Rizwan was still in the [Bangladesh ODI] squad,” Hesson said. “But in 18 months’ time we have a World Cup, so we need to look at the options we have from a keeping point of view.”
The coach revealed that the management had identified powerplay bowling and middle-order batting as two key areas requiring improvement.
“Taking wickets in the powerplay is something we haven’t been particularly good at over the last 12 months,” he said. “In batting, increasing the strike-rate through the middle overs is definitely an area where we need to improve.”
Hesson added that Pakistan were looking to develop more seam-bowling all-rounders for overseas conditions, naming uncapped fast-bowling all-rounder Ahmed Daniyal among players being monitored closely.
The coach also confirmed that Salman Ali Agha had effectively been serving as the team’s vice-captain during recent tours, although no formal public announcement had been made.
Pakistan enter the Australia series after a mixed run in ODI cricket, including a 2-1 defeat in Bangladesh earlier this year, but Hesson insisted the current rebuilding phase required patience as the management assessed younger players ahead of a demanding international cycle.
Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2026
