Mike Hesson’s big revelation: ‘If he had met the players before the match…’ Mohsin Naqvi’s impact on defeat

R. of Colombo, Sri Lanka on February 15, 2026. Pakistan suffered a crushing defeat by 61 runs against India in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 Group A match held at Premadasa Stadium. Chasing the target of 176 runs, it was all out for 114 runs in 18 overs. This was his lowest score against India in the T20 World Cup and took him to 1-8 in the tournament.

A controversy broke out before the match over PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi’s visit to the dressing room a few hours before the toss. There he met the players, hugged stars like Babar Azam and Shaheen Afridi and discussed the performance amid the recent boycott drama (Pakistan reversed its decision to withdraw from the match after government approval). Critics called it a “poisonous” distraction from the big contest. In the post-match press conference, head coach **Mike Hesson** completely rubbished the suggestion that it added pressure: “I don’t think it adds any extra pressure. The board chairman (Mohsin Naqvi) is a big supporter of our team and if he is coming to meet the players before the game, it is part of his job. It doesn’t add any extra pressure to the players.” He described the dressing room as “pretty disappointed” because of the importance of the match with India, and admitted: “We are really disappointed that we didn’t play as well as we could have… now our job is to collect ourselves and make sure we are very good in two or three days.”

The match turned in the powerplay: India recovered from Abhishek Sharma’s duck and scored 175/7** with the help of **Ishan Kishan**’s brilliant innings of 77 runs off 40 balls (Suryakumar Yadav 32; Sam Ayub 3/25). Pakistan’s score was 13/3 early on—**Jasprit Bumrah** took two wickets (Sam Ayub and captain Salman Ali Aga)—and **Usman Khan**’s 44 runs were the only ones unstoppable. Hardik Pandya, Bumrah, Varun Chakraborty and Axar Patel took two wickets each.

India, who were unbeaten at 3–0, reached the Super Eights. Pakistan, placed third in the group, needs to win the match against Namibia at the Sinhalese Sports Club Ground in Colombo on **February 18, 2026** to maintain their hopes of qualification. The defeat added to the off-field tension, which included no handshake at the toss and Naqvi’s exit early in the match. This day brought back memories of India’s first Women’s Asia Cup win over Pakistan in Bangkok.