{"id":429150,"date":"2026-02-16T19:48:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T19:48:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/429150\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T19:48:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T19:48:19","slug":"pakistan-look-to-bounce-back-against-namibia-t20-wc-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/429150\/","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan Look to Bounce Back Against Namibia T20 WC 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pakistan suffered a heavy 61-run defeat against India in Colombo on Sunday and are now under serious pressure at the ICC Men\u2019s T20 World Cup 2026. Coach Mike Hesson has called on his players to quickly forget the loss and focus on what matters next, a must-win clash against Namibia on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Pakistan\u2019s Tough Loss to India Leaves Them on the Edge<\/p>\n

It was a difficult Sunday for Pakistan in Colombo. After restricting India to 175\/7 in 20 overs, a decent effort with the ball,l Pakistan\u2019s batting collapsed badly. They lost four wickets inside the Powerplay and their run chase never recovered, ending in a 61-run defeat to their arch-rivals<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"PakistanSource: ICC Website<\/p>\n

Saim Ayub was a bright spot for Pakistan, picking up 3\/25 with the ball against India. But with the bat, the team simply could not handle the pressure of the big occasion.<\/p>\n

Coach Hesson acknowledged this openly. \u201cWhen a guy\u2019s putting you under pressure, are you going to stick to your basics or are you going to go away from that?\u201d he said. It is a question Pakistan\u2019s batters will need to answer against Namibia.<\/p>\n

Hesson Urges Pakistan to Refocus Ahead of Namibia Clash<\/p>\n

Despite the disappointment, Hesson is pushing his squad to move on fast. He knows tournament cricket comes with its ups and downs and believes his side must bounce back quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really disappointed we didn\u2019t play as well as we could, but we\u2019re part of a tournament and we know it\u2019s not always going to go your way,\u201d Hesson said. \u201cOur job is to pick ourselves up and make sure that we\u2019re very good in two or three days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pakistan will almost certainly need a win over Namibia on Wednesday to have any chance of qualifying for the Super Eights. Hesson made clear that the key lies in trusting their decision-making under pressure, saying: \u201cAll these guys are international players, they\u2019re all good players, but when the pressure comes on, are they going to trust the decision making or are they going to probably go outside that?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the tournament progresses, we\u2019ll be put under pressure again and it\u2019s how we respond when we\u2019re under the pump,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Wednesday is not just another game for Pakistan. It is effectively a knockout match.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pakistan suffered a heavy 61-run defeat against India in Colombo on Sunday and are now under serious pressure…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-429150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-cricket","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}