Jason Gillespie Critiques Aaqib Javed Amid Pakistan Cricket Chaos
The fallout from Pakistan’s miserable start to the Test series in England has turned ugly, and the spotlight is now burning on one man: Aaqib Javed.
The Pakistan Cricket Board’s decision to send seven players and two coaches home midway through the tour has triggered a storm, with former Pakistan Test coach Jason Gillespie launching a stinging public rebuke of the chairman of selectors and director of high performance.
Seven players – Mohammad Rizwan, Imam-ul-Haq, Salman Ali Agha, Sarfaraz Ahmed and Umar Gul among them – were told earlier this week their tour was over. They were replaced, and the Test side was handed to white-ball coach Mike Hesson in a dramatic mid-series reshuffle after heavy defeats at Headingley and Lord’s.
For Gillespie, watching from afar, the handling of those players cut deep.
“I feel for the players, this is these guys livelihoods. From the outside, it looks like they are playing with fear,” he told Code Sports, pointing straight at the confusion engulfing the dressing room.
Nothing summed that confusion up more than the treatment of Salman Ali Agha. Captain in the first Test against England, out of the team for the second, and then on a flight home before the third.
“How does that work?” Gillespie asked, the question hanging over the entire selection regime.
‘They change their mind like they change their pants’
The Australian did not dance around the issue. He named Aaqib Javed as the central figure in what he sees as Pakistan cricket’s current mess, accusing him of running a selection set-up with no coherent plan.
“It's pretty clear they don't have a selection strategy at all, particularly under Aaqib Javed. They change their mind like they change their pants -- daily,” Gillespie said.
The pressure has been mounting on Javed since the cull was announced. Pakistan’s former fast bowler has publicly criticised Gillespie and former white-ball coach Gary Kirsten, claiming there was no communication and that they refused to listen to him during their time in charge.
Gillespie has repeatedly rejected that version of events. This time, he went a step further, accusing Javed of deflecting blame.
“Aaqib Javed came out recently and blamed Gary Kirsten and myself for everything that is going on. Aaqib has been the chairman of selectors for the past two years. We haven't even been there. Somehow, he claims it is our fault. Make sense out of that. I think Javed needs to look at himself in the mirror,” he said.
The phrase “look in the mirror” was no throwaway line. It captured Gillespie’s view that Javed, entrenched in power, is now using former staff as convenient scapegoats while Pakistan unravel on the field.
Players ‘sacked’ by whispers and headlines
For Gillespie, the most damning indictment was not the tactical chaos, but the human cost.
He claimed there is “definitely no communication” between Javed and the players he is supposed to lead as chairman of selectors. According to him, those who were axed did not even receive a direct call.
“The players who were sacked heard it through family and friends and the media that they had been sacked,” he said.
No meeting. No explanation. Just rumours, then confirmation via screens and second-hand messages. For an international setup, that is as brutal as it is amateurish.
The sense of fear Gillespie spoke of suddenly feels less abstract. When captains can be discarded between one Test and the next, when senior players discover their fate on television, the insecurity seeps into every innings, every spell.
Heavy defeats, heavier questions
On the field, the story has been just as grim. Pakistan were crushed by an innings and 103 runs in the series opener at Headingley, then beaten by 194 runs at Lord’s. Two matches, two hammerings, and a team stripped of confidence and, now, continuity.
The PCB’s reaction was to swing the axe and hand the red-ball reins to Mike Hesson in the middle of a tour. It was a move that screamed urgency, but also panic.
Outside Pakistan’s camp, criticism has been relentless. Nasser Hussain has already accused the PCB of turning the situation into a farce and making the team “a laughingstock”. Gillespie’s intervention only sharpens that narrative, because it comes from someone who has been inside the system and is now openly questioning its leadership.
The series is not over. The third and final Test at Edgbaston starts on September 9.
England will arrive with a chance to complete a ruthless clean sweep. Pakistan will walk out under a cloud of doubt, with fresh faces, a reshuffled staff, and a selection boss under fire from all sides.
If this is the reset Aaqib Javed wanted, Edgbaston will show whether it is a new beginning – or the next chapter in a deepening crisis.
