Mike Hesson's Challenge: Overhauling Pakistan's Cricket Team Amid Chaos
BIRMINGHAM, England — Mike Hesson has coached in some volatile cricket environments, but even he sounded taken aback by the past 48 hours in Pakistan’s red-ball setup.
Players in. Players out. Coaches shifted mid-series. A so-called dead rubber that suddenly feels like an audition for half a squad.
“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,” Pakistan’s interim red-ball coach said on Friday, laying bare the churn that has followed two heavy defeats to England at Lord’s and Headingley.
The Pakistan Cricket Board responded to those losses with a sweeping cull, dropping seven players for next week’s third Test in Birmingham and overhauling the coaching staff. Hesson, already in charge of the white-ball side, has been parachuted in as Test coach, with Ashley Nofke replacing Umar Gul as bowling coach. Sarfaraz Ahmed, who began the series as Test coach, has been moved aside.
The result is a squad that looks as if it has been shaken out of a bag.
“The guys are probably more used to a little bit of chaos than I am,” Hesson admitted. “There’s no doubt they have been disappointed, incredibly disappointed. We’ve had to park that and go ‘righto, where to from here?’ They’ve been really good over the past couple of days.”
The upheaval has split opinion back home. Selector Aaqib Javed and PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi have publicly backed the mid-series reset, even as former stars Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Malik have criticized the timing and the scale of the changes.
For Hesson, the timing could hardly have been more abrupt. He was in Japan preparing Pakistan’s white-ball squad for the Asian Games and only due to fly to the UK for last Wednesday’s team audience with King Charles. Then came the call: he would be taking over for the third Test at Edgbaston.
By the time he walked into the team hotel, the exodus had already begun.
“When I took over, three players had already left the squad, Rizwan, Imam and Salman Ali Agha,” Hesson said, naming wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan, opener Imam-ul-Haq and Salman Ali Agha, who captained in the first Test. “I don’t think anyone wants these to happen in the middle of a series, clearly not.”
They were only the start. Fast bowler Khurram Shahzad and left-arm spinner Ali Usman, both involved in the first two Tests, were also released. Allrounders Aamir Jamal and Mohammad Awais were sent home without playing a single Test on tour.
The message from the board was blunt: the old script is not working.
Hesson, though, framed it in cricketing terms. He wants balance. He wants edge. He wants Pakistan to look like Pakistan again.
“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.”
So the selectors have turned to youth and the unknown. Five uncapped players have been drafted in: spin allrounder Arafat Minhas, left-arm quick Mohammad Imran Jr., wicketkeeper Saad Baig, allrounder Mohammad Imran and fast bowler Razaullah. Saim Ayub and Abdullah Fazal are also flying in, bringing with them a combined total of just 10 Test caps.
It is a gamble, but a deliberate one.
“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 metronomic seamer, has been one of the few bright spots in a bruising series. Around him, the attack has looked one-paced and predictable against an England side committed to attacking from ball one. The new names are meant to change that equation, or at least force England to think twice.
For now, Hesson is still learning faces as much as roles.
“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.”
It is an honest admission from a coach dropped into the middle of a storm. Yet this is Pakistan cricket. Turbulence is not a bug; it is often the backdrop.
The third Test may be a dead rubber on paper. For a clutch of uncapped players, a reconfigured staff and a coach juggling two formats, it feels anything but.
