Mirpur pitch slammed by Pak coach Hesson saying that this pitch is not suitable to international standards.
As anticipated, the pitch at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur has been scrutinised after just one match of the Bangladesh-Pakistan T20I series.
After Pakistan was knocked out for 110, head coach Mike Hesson declared the surface “unacceptable” for international cricket, even though he acknowledged that his batters had misread the pitch.
The majority of Pakistan’s batsmen fell when attempting big blows, and by the eighth over, they had fallen to 46 for 5. Three run-outs also didn’t assist Pakistan’s cause, as they eventually collapsed in 19.3 overs.
“I think (the pitch) is not ideal for anybody,” Hesson said. “Teams are trying to prepare for the Asia Cup or the (T20) World Cup. It is not acceptable. It is still no excuse for some of the decisions we made with the bat. But this pitch is not up to international standards.”
“We got off to a little bit of a flyer. Fakhar Zaman played four or five shots. It gave us a false indication about how the surface was playing,” Hesson said. “We didn’t help ourselves through the middle. We chose some poor options. When the ball started to nip through, and bounced steeply, we probably didn’t assess that it was a bit more challenging to play high-risk shots. Couple of run-outs also didn’t help.”
But Parvez Hossain Emon, the opener for Bangladesh, didn’t agree with Hesson’s evaluation of the pitch. According to Emon, the fact that Bangladesh won easily—by seven wickets and with 27 balls remaining—was proof that the surface wasn’t entirely awful.
“We didn’t feel (it was a bad pitch) as we chased it down in less than 16 overs,” he said. “We could have scored 150-160 runs if we batted the full 20 overs. It may be so that they couldn’t adjust to the pitch. We adjusted better than them. The Dhaka pitch usually benefits the bowlers. We tried to assess the wicket quickly. It was our first plan.”