LAHORE: Ahead of the ICC Men’s World Cup 2027 scheduled to be co-hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia, Pakistan men’s cricket team’s white-ball head coach Mike Hesson has listed the areas his team needs to address in the ODIs.
The Super Eights marked Hesson’s first major tournament since his exit from the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 in India and Sri Lanka, with the Green Shirts turning their attention to the longer format but playing only one series so far – an overseas assignment against Bangladesh in March.
The Green Shirts are now slated to host Australia in a three-match ODI series, scheduled from May 31 to June 4, as part of preparations for the mega event.
However, according to the Future Tours Project (FTP), Pakistan will only play one-day tri-series against England and Sri Lanka this year after Australia, and Hesson acknowledged the team’s sparse ODI schedule and confirmed that areas of improvement have been identified.
The head coach insisted that the former champions continue to pick up wickets in the powerplays and said the management needs to find bowlers who can meet this requirement in form.
“You know we haven’t played a lot in the last 12 months, you know our one-day team, but what we’ve done has exposed some key areas you know from a bowling perspective, we need to bowl a lot tighter lines than we have and be more consistent with the ball and especially in the powerplay,” Hesson said.
“We need, you know, in ODI cricket we’ve struggled to take wickets in the powerplay, you know, we need to find bowlers who are really consistent and can do that.
“Like I said the middle overs come around, being very disciplined with the ball, it’s all over, it’s not just on the flat wicket or the turning wickets, you know which bowlers we can find that can do the job.”
In the batting department, while Hesson praised all-rounder Salman Ali Agha’s brilliance in the middle overs, he stressed the need for the team to be more efficient at the point where they make “life” easier for the finishers.
“You know from a batting point of view, we need to be more efficient in the middle overs, you know at the end of the innings we often leave too much to do because we’re a bit passive in the middle overs,” Hesson continued.
“So, you know we have to find the batsmen in those middle overs, you know Salman Ali Agha has been close to an exceptional average of 50 in ODIs, but we have to provide some support around that and be a lot busier than we have been in those middle overs, that will make life easier for the finishers,” he added.