Pakistan's Test Squad Faces Chaos Ahead of Birmingham Test
In Birmingham hotel corridors this week, Pakistan’s Test squad has looked less like a settled touring party and more like a busy transit lounge. Bags in, bags out. Handshakes, goodbyes, new faces at breakfast.
Mike Hesson walked straight into the middle of it.
The interim red-ball coach, parachuted in after Pakistan’s bruising defeats at Lord’s and Headingley, admitted the churn has tested even his seasoned temperament.
“The last couple of days have been challenging for being in a hotel with some players coming, some players going and then the arrival of everyone,” he told reporters on Friday. Then came the line that summed up Pakistan cricket in a sentence: “The guys are probably more used to a little bit of chaos than I am.”
Seven players dropped for what is, on paper, a dead rubber against England. A Test coach removed mid-series. A bowling coach replaced. Five uncapped players called up. This is not a gentle reset. It is a jolt.
Chaos as a starting point
The Pakistan Cricket Board reacted sharply to those “two brutal defeats” at Lord’s and Headingley, ripping into the squad and structure halfway through a three-match series they have already lost. Sarfaraz Ahmed is out as Test coach, with Hesson stepping up from his white-ball role. Umar Gul has made way for Ashley Nofke as bowling coach.
Inside Pakistan, the moves have split opinion. Selector Aaqib Javed and PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi have defended the overhaul, even as former stars Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Malik have publicly questioned the timing and logic of such sweeping changes.
Hesson, meanwhile, has had to hit the ground running. He was in Japan preparing Pakistan’s white-ball side for the Asian Games and only due in the UK for a ceremonial audience with King Charles last Wednesday. Instead, he was told he would be taking charge for the third Test at Edgbaston, starting next Wednesday.
By the time he arrived, the exodus had already begun.
Senior men out, fresh faces in
“When I took over, three players had already left the squad, Rizwan, Imam and Salman Ali Agha,” Hesson said.
Mohammad Rizwan, the wicketkeeper-batter, opening batter Imam-ul-Haq and Salman Ali Agha, who captained the side in the first Test, were among the first to depart. Fast bowler Khurram Shahzad and left-arm spinner Ali Usman, both involved in the opening two matches, were also released. All-rounder Aamir Jamal and Mohammad Awais flew home without facing a ball in anger at Lord’s or Headingley.
“There’s no doubt they have been disappointed, incredibly disappointed,” Hesson said of the discarded players. “We’ve had to park that and go ‘righto, where to from here?’ They’ve been really good over the past couple of days.”
Where from here, for Hesson, starts with variety.
Chasing the old Pakistan aura
Pakistan’s new-look squad for Birmingham carries a very different feel. The selectors have drafted in five uncapped players: spin all-rounder Arafat Minhas, left-arm quick Mohammad Imran Jr., wicketkeeper Saad Baig, all-rounder Mohammad Imran and fast bowler Razaullah. Saim Ayub and Abdullah Fazal are also flying in, between them holding only 10 Test caps.
It is a gamble, but it speaks to a clear idea. Pakistan, Hesson argues, have not looked like Pakistan.
“From my perspective, it’s about putting a balanced squad together, not only for this test, so we actually have some variety in our attack,” he said. “Pakistan is known for the pace, unusual actions, mystery spin — we haven’t really been able to present any of that.”
The pressure of the first two Tests exposed a one-paced, predictable attack. England cashed in. The response has been to seek an “X-Factor”.
“From a bowling point of view, we have got to find some variety,” Hesson said. “We need a little bit of an X-Factor in there as well to try and create some opportunities … to support Mohammed Abbas who’s done incredibly well.”
Abbas, the relentless seamer, has been one of the few bright spots in a grim fortnight. Around him, Pakistan now hope to build something more unpredictable, more in keeping with their history of awkward angles and late swing, of spinners who make batters second-guess every stride.
Learning names on the fly
Hesson’s challenge is not just tactical. It is human. He is trying to forge a team out of a group he barely knows, with a third Test looming and criticism swirling back home.
“I know all the players that are here now,” he said. “Some I’ve worked with a bit, some I’ve said hello to a handful of times and watched them play.”
That is the reality: a coach learning personalities and preferences on the fly, while trying to arrest a slide against a confident England side on their own patch.
The series is gone. The third Test, in standings terms, is dead. Yet for Hesson, for a dressing room jolted by mid-tour upheaval, and for a board that has bet on shock therapy, Birmingham suddenly feels like something else entirely.
It looks like an early verdict on whether Pakistan’s latest embrace of chaos can actually produce clarity.
