Pakistan men’s team head coach Mike Hesson has questioned the way his team is being judged primarily on the basis of results against India, saying no team in world cricket has found the answer to the current Indian team.Speaking to Cricinfo, Hesson said Pakistan’s progress should not be measured by matches against India alone. The former New Zealand coach, who will take charge of Pakistan’s white-ball team in 2025, acknowledged India’s current leadership in world cricket and said Pakistan was not the only team struggling against them.Due to political reasons, the two teams have not played a bilateral series in more than a decade. They have now met only in multi-nation tournaments, where India have dominated since 2022, including a three-match win over Pakistan at the 2025 Asia Cup and a 61-run win at the 2026 T20 World Cup.“For example, at last year’s Asia Cup, we won every tournament except India,” Hesson told Cricinfo. “The reality is every team in the world is currently trying to beat India. Every team, not just Pakistan.”Hesson said Pakistan’s performance against other teams is often overlooked due to the focus on India.“Rightly or wrongly, the measure of Pakistan is their performance against India. At the moment, India are not just the best team; they are the best team by a long shot,” he said. “In the T20 World Cup we lost to England in the Super 8s because of Harry Brooke’s hundred and apart from that a very tight game. We won every game [other] Except for India,” he said.The Pakistan coach also pointed to the team’s progress over the past year, saying the results showed they were heading in the right direction.“From 2023 to 2025, we are not outperforming in ICC events. So unless you start winning more regular cricket matches, you can’t suddenly go from eighth in the world to the tournament. For us to go from winning around 20 per cent of matches to close to three-quarters of the matches in one year is huge.”
