Nasser Hussain Critiques Pakistan's Selection Policy

Nasser Hussain has never been one to tiptoe around an issue, and at Lord’s he went straight for the jugular of Pakistan’s selection policy.

Watching Saim Ayub struggle at the top of the order against England’s attack, Hussain tore into the decision to parachute the young opener in from white-ball duty abroad and throw him into a red-ball examination with the Dukes ball.

“I don’t know who thinks it’s the right thing to fly someone over from foreign conditions, playing a completely different format, and think they’re going to be fine in these conditions against a Dukes ball, against Ollie Robinson and England’s bowling attack,” he said, his frustration obvious.

For Hussain, this was about more than one loose shot or one failed innings. It was about what he sees as a growing disregard for the demands of Test cricket.

“It is just a sort of disrespect and disregard for Test match cricket. Test match cricket, as any cricketer will tell you, is the toughest format. Batting at the top of the order in England is the toughest task, and you just feel you can fly someone in from some part of the world and go, Good luck,” he added.

The former England captain reached back into recent history to make his point. He recalled how even a giant of the modern game, Virender Sehwag, had been burned by a similar gamble at the same venue.

“Virender Sehwag tried it on this ground, if you remember… they flew him in. Virender Sehwag got a pair, and that’s Virender Sehwag, who’s a better, more experienced player than Saim,” Hussain said, using the Indian great’s failure as a stark warning.

Ayub, he stressed, was not blameless. The shot he played drew criticism, and Hussain did not completely shield the youngster from responsibility. But his real anger lay higher up the chain.

“So a bit of responsibility goes to the lad for the shot he played. But also, whoever thought that was a seriously good decision and that he was going to go okay this week?”

That question cut straight to the heart of Pakistan’s chaotic mid-series overhaul. After the second Test at Lord’s, the visitors ripped up their plans, withdrawing seven players from the squad, removing the existing coaching staff and dropping in a new set of players under a white-ball coaching structure led by Mike Hesson for the red-ball format.

In Hussain’s eyes, it looked less like a strategy and more like a gamble with the hardest format of the game.