New Pakistan coach outlines return path for Babar and Afridi

New Pakistan white-ball coach Mike Hesson has revealed the steps that experienced duo Babar Azam and Shaheen Afridi must take to work their way back into the T20I side.

Babar and Shaheen played a major role in helping Pakistan to consecutive appearances in the knockout stages of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup in 2021 and 2022, but have recently fallen out of favour in the shortest format and were notable absentees in Hesson's first squad that swept Bangladesh 3-0 on home soil at the start of last month.

Hesson suggested Babar and Shaheen are both still heavily in his long-term plans for next year's T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka and the pair are currently in Karachi taking part in a training camp alongside their teammates that will travel to Bangladesh later this month for a three-match T20I series in Mirpur.

Hesson clarified that Babar's way back into the team was not by taking the gloves and becoming Pakistan's first-choice keeper, but that the former skipper was in a battle with fellow top-order batters Fakhar Zaman and Saim Ayub for one of two spots as opener.

"Firstly, Babar Azam is not seen as a wicket-keeping option, no," Hesson said.

"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."

Babar's strike-rate of 129.81 in T20I cricket is inferior to Fakhar (133.49) and Ayub (138.48) and Hesson admitted the right-hander needs to boost his scoring clip to stay relevant in the shortest format.

"No doubt strike rate is important in T20 cricket but you have to combine it with a volume of runs," Hesson said.

"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.

"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."

Hesson didn't reveal the exact areas that he wanted Afridi to improve in, but did suggest the left-armer needed to perform better with the white-ball.

"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," Hesson noted.

"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.

"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 and work with them to help them come back stronger."