Pakistan Cricket: Pakistani head coach Mike Hesson has said that his team’s entire focus is on building a stronger and balanced team before the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2027. The Men’s ODI World Cup is to be played between October-November next year. However, Hesson is a little worried about the upcoming ODI series against Australia. A series of three ODI matches is to be played between Pakistan and Australia from May 30. As Pakistan prepares for their home ODI series against the Australian team, Hesson made it clear that the player selection strategy in the coming months will focus on expanding the player pool rather than relying solely on well-known names.
“I think in ODI cricket, we need to expand our pool of players with the World Cup in mind. So, instead of always picking the same players, the ODI team is still in the making. There are a lot of areas that we need to improve on. We have to make sure that when the World Cup comes in a year and a half, we really have the best team,” Hesson said on the PCB podcast.
Pakistan’s preparations for the ODI World Cup have already started. Hesson and his support staff have organized ‘white-ball’ training camps, aimed at assessing both emerging players and senior members of the team. The Pakistani head coach said, “The last two weeks have been good to identify some new talents, challenge them against the existing players, and find out the shortcomings, because some of these young players are very promising, but they still need to work hard.”
It is expected that the upcoming series against Australia will act as an important ‘testing ground’ for many of the young players included in Pakistan’s 16-member ODI squad, especially since some of the key batsmen of the team are not available. Mike Hesson said, “With players like Fakhar Zaman, Saim Ayub and Usman Khan out of the team, we have got an opportunity to try some young players, especially in the field of batting.”
The head coach believes that the Australian team will come with full enthusiasm this time after the crushing 0-3 T20 series defeat at the hands of Pakistan earlier this year. He said, “Pakistan will face an Australian team which was very disappointed and hurt by its performance here last time.”
Despite Australia’s defeat in the shorter formats, Hesson believes ODI cricket is still their strongest suit. “Their team looks very strong and they are coming here to play. ODI cricket is probably their strongest format at the moment. Their ODI team is definitely better than their T20 team at the moment,” Hesson said.
After the inclusion of many young players in the team, Hesson has appealed to the fans to be patient, so that the new generation players can adapt themselves to the environment of international cricket. He said, “There is a need to have some patience with these young players. Of course, if they start performing brilliantly as soon as they come, it would be great, but the reality of international cricket is that not everyone can do that.”
