Pakistan coach head coach Mike Hesson said that India are the benchmark in terms of white ball cricket and it was a challenge for Pakistan to catch up with them.
Hesson also said that the Men in Green will look to put India under pressure if the two teams meet in the upcoming Asian Games.
“India are the benchmark in terms of white-ball cricket at the moment. I think the challenge for Pakistan is to catch up with them in white-ball cricket,” Hesson said on Wednesday.
“We are preparing as best as we can and if we get an opportunity to play (India), we will certainly put them under pressure as we were able to do in the final of the Asia Cup. There is a lot of cricket to be played between now and before being able to play the final for both sides, so we are not getting too far ahead of ourselves,” he added.
Pakistan have had a tough time against India in the shortest format, losing recently to their arch-rivals in the T20 World Cup earlier this year. Last year, they had met thrice in the Asia Cup and lost all three matches, including the final.
In the ongoing Asian Games, Pakistan and India can only play against each other if they qualify for the final or in the bronze medal match as they are in separate groups. The teams play directly from the quarterfinal onwards.
In contrast to India, Pakistan have picked only a handful of experienced players from the national side as their side is filled mostly with players who have either played a few international games or have been on the reserve bench. India, however, have gone in with a full strength outfit indicating their ambition to add another Asian Games gold medal.
Asked about Pakistan’s decline, Hesson said it was unfair to judge the team the same across all formats. The New Zealand man said while Pakistan have definitely struggled in Test cricket but from a T20 perspective, the performance has improved over the last 15 months.
Pakistan, he pointed out, have risen from eighth to fifth in the ICC T20I rankings since he took charge and have gained 30 ranking points.
“We’ve only done that by winning a series, not just in Pakistan but series in Dubai, America, whatever. So we’ve won a lot of series over the last 15 months in T20 cricket,” he said.