As India and Pakistan gear up for the high-profile cricketing contest in the Asia Cup, some inflating remarks have also surfaced. Pakistan head coach Mike Hesson, during a press conference before the on-field contest between the two arch-rivals, called the team’s spinner Mohammad Nawaz the best in the world. The remark by the Pakistan coach left many stunned as Nawaz is far from the crown that Hesson awarded him with. Even India’s assistant coach Ryan Ten Doeschate was asked about the comment made by Hesson in the pre-match press conference on Saturday.
While Hesson has no doubt over the credentials of Nawaz, despite him being ranked 30th in world T20I rankings, the comment did come as a surprise to fans and experts of the game.
“I guess the beauty of our side is we’ve got five spinners. We’ve got Mohammad Nawaz, who’s the best spin bowler in the world at the moment, and he’s been ranked that way over the last six months since he’s come back on the side,” Hesson had said.
Ten Doeschate, speaking of the spinners India have in the tournament, didn’t outrightly deny Hesson’s claim, suggesting everyone has the right to rank their players as per their wishes.
“I think spinners are going to be very important in this competition. If anything, I don’t think it has gripped as much as we anticipated and certainly not like it did earlier in the year when we were here. But spin in general has become a very important part of T20 cricket, and both teams have a lot of spin on offer. And certainly we know how we feel about Varun, Axar and Kuldeep, so everyone’s entitled to their opinion, and they can rank their players wherever they wish,” he said in the pre-match press conference on the eve of the contest.
