BAN vs PAK 2025: Mike Hesson outlines road back for Babar Azam and Shaheen Afridi in T20Is

New Pakistan white-ball head coach Mike Hesson has outlined the steps that experienced duo Babar Azam and Shaheen Afridi need to take to work their way back into the T20I side. Babar and Shaheen were instrumental in Pakistan's runs to the knockout stages of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in 2021 and 2022 but have recently fallen out of favor in the shortest format.

The pair was omitted from Hesson’s first T20I squad, which secured a 3-0 series sweep over Bangladesh at home last month. However, Hesson emphasised that both Babar and Shaheen remain key figures in his long-term plans, particularly with the T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka scheduled for next year. The duo is currently participating in a training camp in Karachi alongside teammates preparing for the upcoming three-match T20I series in Mirpur, Bangladesh later this month.

Hesson also clarified that Babar’s route back into the team would not involve wicketkeeping duties. Instead, he is competing with top-order batters Fakhar Zaman and Saim Ayub for one of the two opening spots in the T20I lineup.

"Firstly, Babar Azam is not seen as a wicket-keeping option, no. Not sure where that came from, but I have heard that speculation. Babar is competing for one of the opening positions at the moment. But obviously we have Fakhar and Saim in those two roles at the moment, so he's competing for that," Hesson said to ICC.

Babar’s T20I strike rate of 129.81 falls short when compared to Fakhar 133.49 and Ayub’s 138.48. Hesson acknowledged that the right-hander needs to improve his scoring rate in order to remain competitive and relevant in the shortest format of the game.

"No doubt strike rate is important in T20 cricket but you have to combine it with a volume of runs. There's a good reason why our ranking in T20 cricket is as low as it is, because our strike rates from a batting point of view are not high enough. We certainly made some shifts in that last series to play a more expansive game of cricket and probably catch up with the rest of the world, as that is the way the modern game is,” Hesson said.

"Babar is one of many who have the ability to make those improvements. And I'm here to work with them and help them. In the last month or so, he's made some really good changes. It's not just a matter of going from 125 to 150, it's a matter of increasing what you can offer because we're no doubt often 30-40 runs short with the bat. So, we need to find a way of getting that," he added.

Hesson did not specify the exact areas where he wants Shaheen to improve but hinted that the left-arm pacer needs to deliver more consistent performances with the white ball to strengthen his place in the T20I setup.

"Shaheen Shah Afridi is a world-class player. There's no doubt that we've identified some areas that Shaheen needs to work on, as does every player at this camp. But there's a good reason that he, and everybody else, is at this camp. They're in the wider frame for Pakistan in white-ball cricket and that includes T20 cricket,” Hesson noted.

"Players go through good periods and periods where they're a little bit down in their game. And it's up to us as coaching staff to try and get our best players on the park and make them better, so when they play for Pakistan, they perform better. We certainly don't discount quality players, but we try to work with them to help them come back stronger,” he concluded.