By Staff Reporter
KARACHI: Pakistan’s chief selector has mounted a defiant defence of the cricket board’s decision to tear up its Test squad and coaching staff midway through the England series, insisting the wholesale changes were forced by a team that had simply stopped competing — even as the fallout threatened to consume the selection process itself.
Aaqib Javed, speaking on a private Pakistani news channel on Tuesday, acknowledged that the selectors bore responsibility for the 17-man squad that flew to England, but argued that once the tour began, it was down to the team’s management to make the calls needed to save it. Those calls, he said, simply weren’t made.
“When we select a team, we sit with the coach and captain and build a squad. We are absolutely prepared to take responsibility for that squad,” Aaqib said. “But when you go on tour, you have to make the kind of combination you need from match to match.”
The scale of the upheaval has stunned Pakistani cricket. Seven players — including wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan and opener Imam-ul-Haq — have been sent home. Head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed and bowling coach Umar Gul have been removed, replaced for the remainder of the tour by white-ball head coach Mike Hesson and former Australia seamer Ashley Noffke. Seven replacements have been flown out, five of them uncapped. And Misbah-ul-Haq, a member of the national selection committee, has resigned, reportedly after being frozen out of the decision-making.
Pakistan travel to Edgbaston for the third and final Test, starting 9 September, already 2-0 down having lost the opening match at Headingley by an innings and 103 runs, then at Lord’s by 194 runs.
‘Someone had to take action’
Aaqib said the selectors had flagged alternatives to the team management before the Lord’s Test that were never used — among them fast bowler Ubaid Shah, who he said could bowl close to 140kph and would have altered the balance of the attack entirely.
“I also spoke to the captain and the coach before this Test match and told them to play your fast bowler, Ubaid Shah, because you have played three fast bowlers of essentially the same type,” he said. He pointed out that none of Pakistan’s top seven batters bowl, making the case for an all-rounder, while also suggesting wicketkeeper Ghazi Ghori might have been picked ahead of Rizwan.
“No one doubted these players’ performances when selected,” Aaqib said. “But when players are completely out of form, and you’re not competing at all, then we needed to make a decision. Someone had to take action. The world is laughing at us because we can’t even compete.”
He was unapologetic about the timing, arguing that a beaten team had nothing left to lose by shaking things up before the dead rubber at Edgbaston. “Now that you have lost the series, having lost both Test matches, there is no harm in changing your mindset for the third Test,” he said. “You can show the world that we still have talent.”
Imam-ul-Haq targeted over Lord’s no-show
Aaqib reserved his sharpest criticism for Imam-ul-Haq, who did not bat in either innings at Lord’s after the PCB announced he had suffered a low-grade tear in his left calf. The board said his involvement in the remainder of the match would depend on medical assessment; Imam did not take further part before appearing to warm up with his teammates on the fourth morning, a sight that drew open scepticism from Stuart Broad on commentary, who dismissed it as “all for show,” and from Australia’s David Warner on social media.
Aaqib did not hold back. “The Imam injury is a big question mark, and a deep disappointment,” he said. “Players in the past used to get injuries, but they used to put on casts and still tried [to play]. We’ll take action against this. How is it possible that a pulled muscle ruled you out of batting in both innings? He should have tried and fought.”
He stopped short of accusing Imam of feigning the injury but confirmed the batter would face a formal inquiry. “I can’t say he faked it, but a muscle pull like that cannot stop you from batting altogether,” he said.
PCB turns inquiry on its own selectors
In a twist that has deepened the sense of disarray at the PCB, the board has now demanded its own selection committee explain why Rizwan and Imam were picked for the tour in the first place — the same players it has since discarded.
According to a report by local media, a notice was issued to committee members on 31 August referring back to a meeting on 2 June, at which Rizwan and Imam were shortlisted for the tours of the West Indies and England. Aaqib, Misbah and fellow selector Asad Shafiq were given 24 hours to submit written explanations of the players’ form, the selection criteria applied and the reasoning behind their inclusion.
The move means the PCB is, in effect, cross-examining the process that produced a squad it tore apart with barely a week’s notice before the final Test — a contradiction not lost on critics of the board.
‘Most shocking decision ever’
Former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi led the criticism, describing the changes as the “most shocking decision ever by a selection committee” in a social media post that questioned both the logic of the overhaul and the calibre of the replacements.
“Not sure what is the logic or reasoning behind this decision!” Afridi wrote. “Even the replacements make no sense — T20 players have been included for a Test match in England? What is this thinking and approach? Why has the coach been axed after five Test matches? This is the most shocking decision ever by a selection committee which includes so many experienced selectors.”
Ramiz Raja, another former Pakistan captain and one-time PCB chairman, was similarly unconvinced, telling BBC Radio 5 Live: “I’m trying to convince myself this is all OK, but it is not. It just shows Pakistan cricket has hit a panic button.”
The scrutiny has been sharpened by the fact that five of the seven axed players — Rizwan, Imam, Salman Ali Agha, Ali Usman and Khurram Shahzad — actually featured in the series, while two others, Aamir Jamal and Muhammad Awais Zafar, were sent home having not played a single match. Batters Saim Ayub and Abdullah Fazal, both with prior Test experience, headline the incoming group, alongside uncapped newcomers Arafat Minhas, Mohammad Imran Jr, Saad Baig, Mohammad Imran and Razaullah.
Babar retained as captain despite past axing
Amid the upheaval, Babar Azam remains in charge as captain — a decision Aaqib defended despite Babar having previously been stripped of the role. The selector argued Pakistan had few obvious alternatives and that Babar’s standing as the side’s senior batter made him the only realistic choice, while warning that leadership, like everything else, would be judged on results.
“If you do not bring about any changes within it, then the problem becomes that the same players keep playing but do not perform,” Aaqib said.
He also moved to explain the appointment of Hesson, arguing the New Zealander’s existing relationship with the squad through his white-ball role gave him a head start in winning the players over. “One man doesn’t run a team. A coach and captain run the team concurrently. Mike Hesson has taken responsibility, and we’ll try and support him in every way,” Aaqib said. “Let’s see how Babar and Mike work together.”
Even so, he conceded that a single Test was unlikely to be enough to turn form around, framing the changes instead as a statement of intent. “It’s difficult to see us getting a result in one match, but people should see we still have talent.”
A tour already shadowed by controversy
The upheaval caps a turbulent tour that had already brushed against crisis before a ball was bowled in the fracas over selection. During the second Test at Lord’s, the PCB threatened at one point to abandon the remainder of the match and the tour altogether, after Sky broadcast an interview with the sons of Imran Khan, the former prime minister and Pakistan captain who has been imprisoned for three years on corruption charges he denies. Both Babar and Sarfaraz subsequently denied any knowledge of a planned boycott, and the match was completed.
Pakistan’s players are still scheduled to attend an audience with King Charles at Clarence House this week, an engagement arranged before the series began and one that will now take place against the backdrop of a squad and coaching staff in open turmoil.
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