Mike Hesson Criticizes Mirpur Pitch Following Pakistan’s Batting Collapse

Pakistan’s white-ball head coach Mike Hesson didn’t hold back in his assessment of the Mirpur pitch after his side crumbled to 110 all out in the opening T20I against Bangladesh at the Shere Bangla National Stadium. While accepting that poor shot selection contributed to the defeat, Hesson labelled the surface “unacceptable” for international cricket.

“I think (the pitch) is not ideal for anybody. Teams are trying to prepare for the Asia Cup or the World Cup. It is not acceptable,” Hesson stated after the match. “It still doesn’t excuse some of the decisions we made with the bat, but this pitch is not up to international standards.”

Pakistan lost five wickets inside the first eight overs and never recovered. With three run-outs adding to their misery, the visitors were bowled out in just 19.3 overs, failing to assess the tricky surface early on.

False Start and Misread Conditions

The match began with a burst of aggressive intent from Fakhar Zaman, whose early boundaries created a misleading impression about how the surface would behave. But as Hesson explained, the bounce and seam movement quickly made stroke-making difficult.

“We got off to a little bit of a flyer… It gave us a false indication about how the surface was playing,” Hesson said. “When the ball started to nip through and bounce steeply, we probably didn’t assess that it was a bit more challenging to play high-risk shots.”

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Bangladesh Disagrees with Hesson’s View

Bangladesh opener Parvez Hossain Emon, however, had a different opinion on the Mirpur pitch. He felt the surface played fine and Pakistan’s downfall was due to poor adjustment.

“We didn’t feel it was a bad pitch as we chased it down in less than 16 overs,” Emon said. “We could have scored 150-160 if we played the full 20. We assessed the wicket better than they did.”

Bangladesh won comfortably by seven wickets with 27 balls to spare — a result that further sparked debate about whether the pitch was truly the problem, or simply Pakistan’s inability to adapt.

Hesson Doubts Surface Will Help Bangladesh in Future

Mike Hesson also questioned whether such pitches would help Bangladesh when they tour abroad:

“You need good cricket wickets to develop cricketers. There were some good wickets during the BPL, to be fair, but this is not up to the standard for international cricket.”

He further added,

“It doesn’t help Bangladesh either when they leave home. In situations like these, batting first is tough because you don’t know whether 100, 130, or 150 is a winning score.”

Despite the criticism, Hesson acknowledged that his team must take responsibility for their batting decisions and approach upcoming games with better adaptability.