Pakistan coach Mike Hesson highlights Babar Azam's potential return to the T20I team depends on improving his play against spin and increasing his strike rate. Azam's exclusion from the upcoming tri-series squad comes despite his strong domestic performance.

Pakistan coach Mike Hesson said former skipper Babar Azam must improve his batting against spin and boost the strike rate to return to T20 internationals. Babar's omission from Pakistan's squad for the upcoming Asia Cup was a big call considering the 30-year-old had been the batting mainstay in their national side across formats.

Kamran Akmal had recently asked for Babar Azam to be dropped from all white-ball formats, but made a massive U-turn after the former Pakistan captain was not included in the squad for Asia Cup 2025.

Pakistan coach Mike Hesson reflects on ODI series loss to West Indies, highlighting death bowling and top-order issues.

Mike Hesson is a good T20 coach, but I don’t know what qualities he has for ODIs. In this format, if you don’t play quality players, this is what will happen,” Akhtar said after the game as quoted by Cricket Pakistan.

Former New Zealand head coach Mike Hesson, who had joined Pakistan as their white-ball head coach in May, is facing a deluge of criticism after the Men in Green suffered their first ODI series loss against West Indies with a 202-run thrashing on Tuesday.