‘Won nothing with RCB’ – Srikkanth targets Pakistan coach before India clash for ‘Nawaz statement’

Mike Hesson was Royal Challengers Bengaluru's Director of Cricket Operations from 2019 to 2023.

1983 World Cup winner Krishnamachari Srikkanth has criticised Pakistan’s head coach Mike Hesson for making unnecessary bold statements. Before Pakistan’s Asia Cup campaign began against Oman, Hesson was asked about handling India’s spin threat duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Varun Chakravarthy.

Hesson’s big claim about Mohammad Nawaz

To this, the Kiwi coach replied by saying that Pakistan won’t have any issues since they have the world’s best spinner in Mohammad Nawaz. The comment came after the left-arm orthodox spinner ended up as the highest wicket-taker in a tri-series against Afghanistan and the UAE. Nawaz had taken a hat-trick and a 5-wicket haul in the final as well.

“I guess the beauty of our side is we’ve got five spinners. We’ve got Mohammed Nawaz, who is the best spin bowler in the world at the moment, and he’s been ranked that over the last six months since his comeback in the side. We’ve had Abrar and Sufiyan do as well as he has,” Hesson had told reporters.

Srikkanth criticises Pakistan’s head coach

This statement has irked Srikkanth. He lambasted the coach for saying that he’s never won a trophy in his life. This remains largely true, since he has one title run with Islamabad United in his 22-year career. The former opener added that his time as Royal Challengers Bengaluru‘s Director of Cricket Operations from 2019 to 2023 wasn’t fruitful either.

Srikkanth reckons that Hesson would have just told Pakistan to go out and try to smash the ball without much of a plan, and against Oman, it may have come off, but against India, it won’t.

“He keeps making bold statements. Whatever team he has coached has never done well. He coached RCB, and they won nothing at that time. How are Pakistan going to do well under his coaching? He would have just asked them to throw their bats at the ball with courage. Yesterday, the way Saim Ayub got out, I knew it was Mike Hesson’s influence. Mike Hesson must have batted like that only,” Srikkanth said on his YouTube channel.