Follow UsPakistan did reasonably well in the tri-series involving Afghanistan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as the other two teams in the tournament hosted by the UAE, just ahead of the Asia Cup 2025.
Despite losing only one game in three to the Afghans and winning the other four, two each against the UAE and Afghanistan quite comfortably, nobody is giving them even an ounce of weightage against arch-rivals India, who are the outright favourites to lift the trophy.
However, Pakistan’s coach Mike Hesson, who is a former Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) coach, gave the team a mantra to follow to succeed in the eight-team tournament.
“Our pool is challenging with Oman, UAE and India, so we need to adapt quickly. The key is not to get distracted by external pressures,” Hesson was quoted as saying by Sportstar.
The coach, who also took New Zealand to the 2015 World Cup final, was happy with his team’s progress as they won four out of their five games in a predecessor tournament to the all important Asia Cup.
“We have beaten Afghanistan in conditions that suited their spin attack, which was a real confidence builder. Heading into the Asia Cup, this was also very important for us,” he said.
Since taking over as white ball coach, Mike Hesson has had mixed results with the Pakistan team, winning two T20I bilateral series, losing one bilateral T20I series and an ODI series and now winning the Tri-Series heading into the Asia Cup 2025.