Speaking in Karachi before the team’s departure for Japan, Hesson acknowledged India’s current dominance in white-ball cricket.
“India are the benchmark in terms of white-ball cricket at the moment, and our challenge is to catch up to that,” he said.
India have won back-to-back T20 World Cups and are the defending Asian Games champions. Since Hesson took charge in May 2025, Pakistan have lost to India three times in the Asia Cup and once at this year’s T20 World Cup.
The men’s cricket competition at the Asian Games begins on Thursday. Pakistan and India have never met at the Games but are expected to potentially face each other in the semi-finals on 1 October in Nagoya.
“We are certainly preparing as best we can, and if we get an opportunity to play [India], we will certainly put them under pressure like we did in the final of the Asia Cup,” Hesson added.
Pakistan will first face the winners of Pool B (Hong Kong, Oman or Malaysia) in the quarter-final on 28 September.
Hesson urged his players to focus on the immediate task. “There is a lot of cricket to be played between now and being able to play in the semi-final for both sides, so we are not getting too far ahead of ourselves.”
Pakistan have never won a medal in Asian Games cricket, having lost the bronze-medal matches in both 2010 and 2023.