Hesson slams 'unacceptable' Mirpur pitch

One game into the Bangladesh-Pakistan T20I series, the pitch at the Shere Bangla National Stadium has come under the scanner as expected.

While Pakistan's head coach Mike Hesson admitted that his batters hadn't read the pitch correctly, he branded the surface as "unacceptable" for international cricket, after Pakistan were bowled out for 110.

"I think (the pitch) is not ideal for anybody," Hesson said. "Teams are trying to prepare for the Asia Cup or the (T20) World Cup. It is not acceptable. It is still no excuse for some of the decisions we made with the bat. But this pitch is not up to international standards."

Pakistan had slipped to 46 for 5 by the eighth over, with most of their batters falling while going for big shots. Pakistan's cause wasn't helped by three run-outs either, as they eventually folded in 19.3 overs.

"We got off to a little bit of a flyer. Fakhar Zaman played four or five shots. It gave us a false indication about how the surface was playing," Hesson said. "We didn't help ourselves through the middle. We chose some poor options. When the ball started to nip through, and bounced steeply, we probably didn't assess that it was a bit more challenging to play high-risk shots. Couple of run-outs also didn't help."

Bangladesh opener Parvez Hossain Emon, however, disagreed with Hesson's assessment of the pitch. Emon said that Bangladesh winning comfortably - by seven wickets and with 27 balls to spare - was an indication that the surface wasn't all bad.

"We didn't feel (it was a bad pitch) as we chased it down in less than 16 overs," he said. "We could have scored 150-160 runs if we batted the full 20 overs. It may be so that they couldn't adjust to the pitch. We adjusted better than them. The Dhaka pitch usually benefits the bowlers. We tried to assess the wicket quickly. It was our first plan."

Hesson, though, felt such pitches wouldn't help even Bangladesh prepare for sterner tests away from home.

"You need good cricket wickets to develop cricketers. There was some good wickets during the BPL, to be fair. It is not up to the standard when international cricket is being played.

"I don't think it helps them when they leave Bangladesh. But I think also batting first in these situations is challenging. When you aren't quite sure whether 100 or 130 or 150 is good enough. I don't think (the pitch) is good for anybody. It still doesn't take away the fact that you have to perform better in any surface. We will look at it as a team."