Pakistan cricket tore up its own script on the eve of a dead-rubber Test. With England already 2-0 up and unbeatable in the three-match series, the Pakistan Cricket Board on Monday sacked red-ball head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed and handed interim charge of the Test side to white-ball coach Mike Hesson, the New Zealander who has overseen Pakistan’s short-format fortunes since 2024. Within hours, chief selector and former captain Misbah-ul-Haq emailed his resignation to the board, saying he had not received so much as an acknowledgment by Monday night.
A Board in Panic Mode
The trigger was two chastening defeats. Pakistan lost the first Test at Headingley by an innings and 103 runs, then were beaten by 194 runs at Lord’s, managing to pass 200 in an innings only once across four attempts. Those collapses, against an England attack led by Ollie Robinson’s eight-wicket haul at Lord’s, left Joe Root’s side with an unassailable series lead heading into the third Test at Edgbaston in Birmingham from September 9-13. Rather than wait out a series already lost, the PCB opted for wholesale change mid-tour — an almost unheard-of move with one match still to play.
Seven Players Sent Home
The coaching reshuffle was matched by a playing-squad purge. Seven players, including senior figures Mohammad Rizwan and Imam-ul-Haq, were sent home from England and replaced by seven newcomers, five of them uncapped at Test level. Bowling coach Umar Gul was also replaced, with Australian Ashley Noffke brought in for the finale. The scale of the overhaul — chopping veterans and handing debuts in the same week a head coach is fired — is unprecedented even by Pakistan cricket’s famously turbulent standards.
Misbah’s Frustration Boils Over
Misbah-ul-Haq, who returned to Pakistan’s set-up as chief selector after a stint as head coach in 2019-2021, was reportedly blindsided by the timing of Sarfaraz Ahmed’s removal, given it came without any selection-committee consultation. His resignation letter, sent Monday night, reflected a broader frustration among senior cricket figures that structural decisions in Pakistan cricket are made reactively, often overriding the very selectors meant to own team-building calls. Several former Pakistan players and coaches have publicly voiced disbelief that a coach would be axed and a chief selector allowed to walk away with a Test still live.
Hesson’s Balancing Act
For Hesson, the assignment is a poisoned chalice of sorts: steady a demoralized, half-rebuilt squad at Edgbaston, a ground where England have historically been strong, while also auditioning five uncapped players thrown in with barely a training session together. Hesson’s white-ball record with Pakistan has been solid, but Test cricket, especially in English conditions against a rampant home attack featuring Jofra Archer and Josh Tongue alongside Robinson, is a different examination entirely. Pakistan will be desperate simply to avoid a 3-0 whitewash, a result that would compound the embarrassment of the coaching upheaval.
What Comes Next
The PCB has given no indication of whether Hesson’s Test appointment is permanent or a stop-gap before a fresh, formal recruitment process, nor has it named a replacement for Misbah on the selection panel. With Pakistan already contending with fallout from Brydon Carse’s off-field issues on the England side earlier in the tour and a wider debate about central contracts back home, the board now faces a rebuilding job that stretches well beyond one Test match. How Pakistan performs in Birmingham — and how quickly clarity emerges over the permanent coaching structure — will shape team morale heading into a packed 2026-27 season that includes fixtures against West Indies, South Africa and Australia. For a board that prizes results above all else, as Misbah once wryly noted of the system he worked within, patience with the new setup may prove in short supply if Birmingham goes the way of Headingley and Lord’s.