New Delhi: Pakistan head coach has acknowledged India’s strength in white-ball cricket but believes his team can put their arch-rivals under pressure if the two sides square off at the in Japan.
The teams cannot meet each other before the medal stage, with both directly advancing to the quarterfinals of the men’s T20 competition.
Pakistan will take on the runners-up from Group B on September 28, while India will face the second-placed team from Group A on the same day. The rivals can only face each other in the gold-medal match or the bronze-medal play-off.
“India are the benchmark in terms of white-ball cricket at the moment, and our challenge is to catch up to that,” Hesson said during Pakistan’s pre-departure camp in Karachi.
“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 will head into any potential clash against the arch-rivals knowing that India have dominated against them in the recent T20I meetings. The Men in Blue have won the last six T20I matches between the teams, including three clashes in the 2025 Asia Cup.
Hesson defends Pakistan’s T20I side despite repeated losses to India
Hesson, however, rejected the suggestion that Pakistan’s T20I team is going through a difficult phase, while acknowledging that the Test side has struggled a lot, including a 3-0 whitewash against England in their recent three-match series.
“The Test team is struggling and we are all well aware of it. But the win percentage of the T20I team in the last 15 months has been third or the fourth best. We have lost to India on multiple occasions and that is the benchmark of all the Pakistani teams, we understand that. But to suggest that the T20 side is at a low [is not correct],” Hesson said.
Sahibzada Farhan will captain Pakistan in the Asian Games 2026, and the 15-member squad includes four players who are yet to make their T20I debuts – Akif Javed, Ali Raza, Maaz Sadaqat and Saad Masood. The men’s competition will start on September 24, with the medal matches scheduled for October 3. India are the defending champions, having clinched the gold medal at the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou.