Pakistan coach searching for best batting mix at Asia Cup

Pakistan coach Mike Hesson has admitted his batting lineup is still a work in progress as the side gets set to commence their Asia Cup campaign against Oman in Dubai on Friday.

Hesson's side enters the Asian Cup having won 10 of their most recent 13 T20I contests and the majority of those have come with a new-look top six that hasn't included experienced duo Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan.

It has left the likes of opener Fakhar Zaman and fellow top-order batter Saim Ayub to fill the void and Hesson believes his batters are still evolving and learning how to complement each other when at the crease.

"It's very much a developing batting line up," Hesson said on Thursday.

"And there's a number of players who, on their day, can win you the game, but they don't have as many good days as you'd like at the moment.

"I think that's very fair. The thing for us, though, is we're more interested in the sum of the parts as a batting group.

"Because there are times where 150 is good enough, there are times where 190 might not be.

"So you've got to, as a batting unit, decide what's required to win the game and see if we can get above that."

While Hesson is still working hard on finding his right batting mix, the coach said he was more than happy with the recent output from his bowlers and in particularly his spinners.

Left-armer Mohammad Nawaz was recently adjudged Player of the Series during Pakistan victorious tri-series triumph over Afghanistan and UAE, while fellow spinners Abrar (Ahmed) and Sufiyan (Muqeem) have displayed plenty of class during the side's recent winning run.

"I guess the beauty of our side is we've got five spinners," Hesson said.

"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 in the side.

"And obviously we've had Abrar (Ahmed) and Sufiyan (Muqeem) do as well as he has. Saim Ayub is now in the top 10 all-rounders in the world. So obviously that comes on the back of his improved performance with the ball. And Salman Ali Agha has hardly bowled, and he's obviously the Test spinner for Pakistan."

And while Hesson said his immediate focus was on making a winning start at the Asia Cup against Oman, the Pakistan coach knows there will be plenty of focus on their second match at the tournament when they take on arch-rival India on Sunday.

"We know that India are obviously hugely confident, and rightfully so, in terms of how well they've played," Hesson added.

"We're very much focused on improving as a team, sort of day by day, and not getting too far ahead of ourselves, but we're well aware of the... I wouldn't say the enormity of the task, I'd say the challenge of the task ahead, and we're certainly looking forward to it."