There is this significant moment in a presentation that he seems to be making to the PCB officials, perhaps just before his stint began. The video is out there on the internet.

He can be seen sitting on a sofa, holding a whiteboard with a pointer in his hand. On the board, various things are scribbled. On the left hand corner, there is a mention of Salman Agha (Pakistan’s captain) and below him three bullet points are written: “Composed, Game Awareness, Tactical Flexibility”. On the right side corner, the topic is ‘PCB role’ and below it is written, ‘Authority, Trust, selectors, coach are on board’.

In the video, he is pointing to what is written right in the dead-centre of that whiteboard: ‘Media Noise’.

“Right in the middle of my white board here is ‘Media Noise’,” Hesson says. “And we know it will always be there. The challenge for PCB to support the Pakistan team is to make sure they are able to keep that (media noise) away from the players. Because the reality is whenever you make change – and change we know has been a constant in recent years – it’s not going to be an automatic fix. There might be where we win a series right away and we might get a bit of relief but there will always be a time when we don’t play particularly well or your style of play is challenged or some of your leaders are under pressure because of their own performances.

“The key thing here is that this (he points to ‘media noise’) is removed. So the decisions are not made via YouTube, Twitter, ex-players going on a TV show bagging current players or whatever it is – that will always happen. People are out there giving their opinions – some of it is educated, some of it is not. And that’s the way it is. So the key for PCB is that thing right there (media noise) doesn’t influence decisions. They make sure that they are very well aware of the direction in which the team is going and they challenge it from time to time behind closed doors but they certainly don’t do it in public.”

The freedom he gets on the rest of his two-year tenure, if not the longevity of the tenure itself, will now, post Asia Cup, come down to whether the PCB officials heed to what he said then.

Hesson isn’t new to Pakistan as he has coached Islamabad United, a PSL team where Salman Agha is the captain, for two seasons. The criticism of too many allrounders in the team won’t be a surprise to anyone who has followed his coaching that PSL team or even heard him spell out his philosophy.

Just three months back, in an interview with former cricketer Bazid Khan on the official Pakistan Cricket site, he had said as much. When it was put to him whether he would go with specialist bowlers or have allrounders, he made his point.

“The idea of specialist batters is outdated, ” Hesson told Pakistan Cricket’s YouTube channel. “You have to be multi-skilled. Not everyone can read a pitch to a point where you know these 5 bowlers are going to be perfect. So if you have 6-7 options that the captain can turn to .. if you have two right-handers, you have a left-arm spinner. You have off spinners for matchups. It might just be 1-2 bowlers but that gives flexibility to the captain at the backend to pick your best bowlers.”

Asked if the team can afford three specialist bowlers in that philosophy, Hesson replied, “You can afford 3 specialist bowlers for sure but they need to have cricket smarts with the bat. They don’t have to hit it out of the park but they should know how to get a single. How to work with the guy at the other end as often as that’s when the game is on the line. In the 20th over, if your No. 9 comes in, he needs to know he can find a way to get the batsman on strike. That’s something we are going to be continually working on.” It explains the nature of the team combination that Hesson’s Pakistan team went with during the Asia Cup.

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During the final against India, at one point, Hesson could be seen getting worked up when Haris Rauf returned in the middle overs, and bowled from round the stumps into the arc of the left-handed Tilak Varma. Just after Tilak carted a six into backward square-leg stands, Hesson stood up, and gestured animatedly at Rauf – the gist was to bowl over the wicket and away from the batsman on the off side. Which Rauf did next over, keeping it well outside off but for some reason, he again erred by keeping a few deliveries in line of stumps. All those balls disappeared to the boundary.

Has Rauf tested Hesson’s patience enough? Perhaps there is a clue in the segment of that interview he gave three months back to Pakistan Cricket channel. “For me, its having that process in place, giving the players that trust. As long as they are trying to do the right thing by the team, then we have a lot more patience. If players are more self-absorbed or trying to do what suits them, then I have less patience, (smiles). That will provide consistency. If you don’t have consistency, then it’s just good luck on any given day.”

He also had spoken about how he goes about stuff on match days. “I talk to the group in the hotel before we leave. On the field, it’s Salman. I am going to different individuals .. I trust Salman and leadership group to problem-solve but if I do see something, I shall send messages as it’s an option. If they decided to do something else that was decided before, I don’t have a problem with it. It’s not a dictatorship.”

Pakistan have had a musical-chairs of sorts with coaches in recent times with Jason Gillespie and Gary Kirsten left in lurch pretty early into their stint. Hesson had revealed that he was first approached a year back itself, and that he accepted the role only after several chats with the PCB.

“We had a chat a year before but my family situation didn’t allow me to move that time. My eldest daughter has now moved to university, which has helped. But I guess when there was a shift in PCB recognising they needed to change the way they wanted to play white-ball – that was important. Someone new to come and to make change might take time. The concept of playing aggressive cricket vs playing measured smart cricket is what makes the difference. I thought I can make a difference there, I am pretty good at identifying who can be good whiteball cricketers.”

He might well be, but the events in Asia Cup with all its controversies on and off the field must have been alien to him, based on his past. The pressure of games against India, the politically-charged atmosphere around it, the intense press conferences, the harsh criticism from former players and the pundits on YouTube channels, a cottage industry in Pakistan, can’t be easy to shut off.

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Asked what does he want to be his legacy at the end of his tenure as a coach, Hesson said, “I would like to get the Pakistan public to go ‘hey this is a great team to watch, this is a team we have respect for, every game they put their bodies on line and try to win, and if they don’t win, they are going to make it incredibly hard for opposition to win. If I can leave that legacy…”