Pakistan coach Mike Hesson criticised the Mirpur pitch after his team suffered a seven-wicket defeat in the first T20I of the three-match series against Bangladesh on Sunday (July 20).
Mike Hesson: Mirpur pitch not ideal for anyone
In the series opener, Pakistan batted first but were bowled out for just 110. After the match, Pakistan coach Hesson expressed dissatisfaction with the Mirpur pitch, calling it "not up to international standards".
"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."
Pakistan made a sloppy start, losing half their side for just 46 runs. Fakhar Zaman’s 34-ball 44 was the only notable contribution at the top, but he too departed leaving Pakistan struggling at 70-6. Khushdil Shah (17 off 23) and Abbas Afridi (22 off 24) were the only other batters to reach double digits, helping Pakistan scrape past the hundred-run mark.
Hesson: We didn't assess conditions well
Hesson added: "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.
"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.
"You need good cricket wickets to develop cricketers. There was some good wickets during the BPL, to be fair. It is not up to the standard when international cricket is being played."
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Historically, runs have been hard to come by at Mirpur. Among venues in Full Member nations that have hosted at least 30 T20Is, Mirpur has the second-lowest scoring rate (7.09 runs per over). Only South Africa's Willowmoore Park in Benoni (6.24), which has only hosted matches between Associate nations, has a worse record.
"I don't think it helps them when they leave Bangladesh," Hesson remarked.
"But I think also batting first in these situations is challenging. When you aren't quite sure whether 100 or 130 or 150 is good enough. I don't think (the pitch) is good for anybody.
"It still doesn't take away the fact that you have to perform better in any surface. We will look at it as a team," he concluded.
However, Bangladesh opener Parvez Hossain Emon, who scored an unbeaten 56 off 39 balls to guide his team to victory in 15.3 overs, disagreed with Hesson's assessment of the pitch.
"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 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."
Mirpur has been Bangladesh’s happy hunting ground in T20Is, largely due to the pitch’s sluggish nature, which favours their slower bowlers. Nearly one-third of Bangladesh’s T20I wins (23 out of 75) have come at this venue.
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