Pakistan's New Faces and Coaching Shakeup Ahead of Edgbaston Test
In Birmingham, Pakistan have arrived for a dead rubber with England carrying anything but dead energy. They bring with them seven new faces, a new coaching structure and the familiar hum of crisis that seems to trail the team wherever it goes.
Mike Hesson, parachuted in as interim red-ball coach midway through the series, walked into a hotel lobby that felt more like a revolving door.
“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 said on Friday, laying out the scene with a wry honesty.
Players were packing, others were checking in, and a Test match loomed.
The Pakistan Cricket Board had reacted hard and fast to brutal defeats at Lord’s and Headingley. Seven players gone. Sarfaraz Ahmed removed as Test coach. Umar Gul replaced by Ashley Nofke as bowling coach. A mid-series reset that split opinion back home and lit up the airwaves.
Former stars Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Malik questioned the timing and the logic. PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi and selector Aaqib Javed stood firm, defending the decision to rip up the script with one Test still to play.
Hesson, Pakistan’s white-ball head coach, had been on a very different assignment. He was in Japan, preparing for the Asian Games, and only expected to swing through the UK for a ceremonial audience with King Charles. Then the phone rang. Plans changed. Suddenly he was the man in charge for the third Test at Edgbaston.
By the time he reached the squad, the clear-out had already begun.
“When I took over, three players had already left the squad, Rizwan, Imam and Salman Ali Agha,” he said. Mohammad Rizwan, Imam-ul-Haq and Salman Ali Agha — who had captained in the first Test — formed the first wave of departures.
They were followed by fast bowler Khurram Shahzad and left-arm spinner Ali Usman, both of whom had featured in the opening two Tests. All-rounder Aamir Jamal and Mohammad Awais never even got that far, sent home without a cap at Lord’s or Headingley.
“The guys are probably more used to a little bit of chaos than I am,” Hesson admitted. There was no attempt to dress it up. “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.”
So where from here?
For Hesson, the answer starts with balance and identity. Pakistan, he argued, had 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. Pakistan is known for the pace, unusual actions, mystery spin — we haven't really been able to present any of that.”
The selection panel has tried to correct that in one sweep. Five uncapped players are in: spin all-rounder Arafat Minhas, left-arm fast bowler Mohammad Imran Jr., wicketkeeper Saad Baig, all-rounder Mohammad Imran and fast bowler Razaullah. Raw, unknown, and suddenly very relevant.
Joining them on the flight to the UK are Saim Ayub and Abdullah Fazal. Between them, they own just 10 Test caps. This is not a tweak. It is a gamble.
“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, relentlessly accurate and quietly effective, has been one of the few steady notes in a discordant tour. Around him, Pakistan are searching for the chaos they usually inflict on others, not the kind that eats away from within.
Hesson insists he knows what he has, even if relationships are still forming.
“I know all the players that are here now. Some I've worked with a bit, some I've said hello to a handful of times and watched them play.”
It is a candid picture: a coach dropped into the middle of a storm, trying to build trust while stitching together a team identity in days, not months.
The third Test at Edgbaston may be a dead rubber on paper. For Pakistan’s new faces, and for a coach trying to drag some order out of the familiar turmoil, it looks more like the start of an audition.
