Firing the primary salvo forward of high-profile Asia Cup conflict in opposition to arch-rival India, Pakistan head coach Mike Hesson on Thursday termed left-arm spinner Mohammed Nawaz as “greatest spinner in world cricket”.
Nawaz, who just lately bought a five-for in opposition to Afghanistan within the tri-nation T20 closing at Sharjah, will headline Pakistan’s spin division alongside wrist spinners Sufiyan Muqeem and Abrar Ahmed.
“When you’ve got wrist spinners like that, it doesn’t actually matter concerning the floor as a lot. The great thing about our facet is we’ve bought 5 spinners. We’ve bought Mohamed Nawaz, who’s the perfect spin bowler on this planet in the mean time, and he’s been ranked that means during the last six months since he’s come again on the facet,” Hesson stated forward of Pakistan’s recreation in opposition to Oman.
Nevertheless, as per the newest ICC T20I rankings, Nawaz is ranked 30.
“Clearly, we now have Abrar and Sufiyan. Saim Ayub is now within the high 10 all-rounders on this planet,” one other Hesson’s declare that is still unfounded.
“Salman Ali Agha has hardly bowled, and he’s additionally the Check spinner for Pakistan. So, we’ve bought a variety of spin bowling choices, if we predict situations go well with that.
“If we don’t, we now have bought 5 pacers as properly who permit us to both go for airspeed or change of tempo or reverse swing, relying on what we predict the floor will present,” the coach stated.
Hesson wasn’t amused when requested if Pakistani batters are capable of learn the wrist spinners out of their fingers.
“We’ve got performed in opposition to in all probability the perfect wrist-spin assault on this planet (Afghanistan) on a floor that has spun sq., and we managed to attain 70 greater than our opposition, so I’m not fairly positive the place that’s come from,” he stated.
Additionally learn | Kapil Dev to share classes on management and life past cricket at PlayCom 2025
However a line-up comprising Saim Ayub, Sahibzada Farhan, Salman Ali Agha, Hasan Nawaz and Muhammad Harris is a creating one.
“There are a variety of gamers who, on their day, can win you the sport, however they don’t get as many good days as you’d like in the mean time, and I believe that’s particularly reasonable.
“The factor for us, although, is we’re extra within the sum of the elements as a batting group, and in each recreation in Sharjah, we have been in all probability 20 above par,” he stated.
He spoke concerning the tri-series closing the place Pakistan received by 75 runs on a troublesome monitor.
“Even within the closing, 120 was loads on that pitch and we bought 140, and anybody watching that recreation would have been properly conscious of that because the ball was stopping and spinning, so the actual fact we scrapped 140, you’re by no means going to play with fluency on these varieties of surfaces,” he added.
“We additionally bought 200, we bought 180, and we had 150 chasing, which was in all probability our poorest efficiency. Exterior of that, as a batting unit, we’ve bought the job completed.
“Would we like each considered one of them to be in type on the identical time? In fact we’d. It actually seems prefer it’s going to be a fairly good pitch, is for a couple of of these guys to search out some type and play in innings that we don’t should play.” Hesson stated.
Revealed on Sep 11, 2025