Pakistan coach Hesson excited to be part of ‘a highly-charged event’

Pakistan’s opening encounter of the Asia Cup is against Oman on Friday, but Sunday’s marquee spectacle versus India featured prominently in coach Mike Hesson’s pre-match media interaction. Instead of trotting out cliches about the Pakistanis taking one game at a time, the New Zealander was more than willing to have his say on the big battle.

“Being part of a highly-charged event is going to be exciting,” Hesson, who took the reins in May, said on Thursday. “From my perspective, just like anytime you enter the final of a world event, it is about keeping everybody focused on the job at hand. We know India is obviously hugely confident and rightfully so. But we are very much focused on improving as a team day by day. We are well aware of the challenge of the task ahead and we are certainly looking forward to it.”

In India’s comprehensive win over the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Wednesday, spinners Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy and Axar Patel came good. But Hesson believes his tweakers can be just as lethal. In the lead-up to this event, Pakistan won a tri-series involving Afghanistan and UAE in Sharjah on pitches that spun considerably. Left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz, leggie Abrar Ahmed and left-arm wrist-spinner Sufiyan Muqeem are part of Pakistan’s armoury.

“I don’t think this pitch is going to spin as much. Even yesterday, when Kuldeep bowled, it didn’t spin a huge amount. But when you have wrist spinners, the surface doesn’t matter as much. The beauty of our side is we have got five spinners. We have got Nawaz. And obviously we’ve had Abrar and Sufiyan do as well as they have. Saim Ayub is now in the top 10 all-rounders in the world, and Salman Agha has hardly bowled. We have got a lot of spin bowling options if we think conditions suit that,” Hesson enthused.