ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s white-ball head coach, Mike Hesson, strongly criticized the pitch at the Shere Bangla National Stadium, calling it “unacceptable” after his team suffered a seven-wicket loss to Bangladesh on Sunday.
Pakistan had a solid start with aggressive intent from openers Fakhar Zaman and Saim Ayub, but the innings quickly unraveled as the visitors slumped to 46 for 5 by the eighth over, largely due to reckless shot selection. The collapse was further compounded by three run-outs, and the team was eventually bowled out for just 110 in 19.3 overs.
“This pitch is not ideal for any team,” Hesson said during the post-match press conference. “With major tournaments like the Asia Cup and the T20 World Cup coming up, this kind of surface is simply not acceptable.”
While Hesson admitted that some of Pakistan’s batting decisions were poor, he insisted the pitch failed to meet international standards.
“We made some poor choices. Once the ball started to seam and bounce awkwardly, we should’ve realized that aggressive stroke play wasn’t the smart option. And the run-outs certainly didn’t help either,” he added.
In contrast, Bangladesh’s Parvez Hossain Emon, who guided his team to victory with an unbeaten 56 off 39 balls, disagreed with Hesson’s assessment.
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“We didn’t see any issue with the pitch — we chased the target in under 16 overs,” Emon said. “Had we batted the full 20 overs, we could’ve easily scored 150-160. Maybe they just failed to adjust — we adapted better.”
Hesson, however, reiterated his stance, noting that uncertainty about whether a score of 130 or 150 is defendable suggests the pitch isn’t up to par.
“If teams can’t gauge what a good total is, then that’s not a good surface to play on,” he stressed.
The second T20I of the three-match series is scheduled for July 22. Notably, Pakistan had clean-swept Bangladesh 3-0 in their last T20I series held in May on home soil.