PCB produces a clownery show, pushing the team in further turmoil

ICC World Test Championship

Cricket has historically seen many wars between the boards and the players due to various reasons. South Africa was banned from cricket in 1971 due to their players protesting against the apartheid government only to return 21 years later once things got better. Zimbabwean cricketers Henry Olonga and Andy Flower once famously used black armbands in order to stage a protest against the government in the 2003 Cricket World Cup which led to their exclusion from the country. West Indies players have battled their own board on various issues of pay disputes, contract disagreements and disrespect from the management. Such fights have been quite common in Pakistan cricket for years now still, things have never taken such an ugly turn. The PCB has taken some horrible decisions in the past but this time they have outperformed themselves. The national board of cricket in Pakistan decided to remove seven players from the original squad which was named for the three-match series with England. Once they lost the series 2-0, not only did they suddenly replace the players, the board also fired their head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed, bowling coach Umar Gul and replaced them with an SOS call to their white-ball coach, Mike Hesson. 

Things happened so fast that none of us could contemplate the whole series of events yet, the outlandishness has continued in the background. The national selectors were given a show-cause notice to explain why Imam-ul-Haq and Mohammad Rizwan were selected for the tour of West Indies and England. Misbah-ul-Haq, one of the integral part of this selection committee resigned soon after whereas Aaqib Javed threw their national captain, Babar Azam and the management under the bus in a recent press conference. The latest reports show that PCB has taken hold of the phones of some of their players under the suspicion of disciplinary issues. That have also been reports of some misconduct by the players. England on the other hand, are sitting comfortably and quietly with a 2-0 lead unassailable lead. The whole episode has finally given the viewers some masala to discuss, since Pakistan has been merely a Spectator in this series so far going down without any fight in this series. Many players have criticized the lack of courage, a quality which has never been associated by a Pakistani side who is capable of the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Among all this drama, there is another Test match to be played at Edgbaston. Both sides will enter the match on extreme ends with England favorites to seal the series 3-0. 

Players, coaches replaced unnecessarily in the middle of the series as panic sets in

Salman Ali Aga was the captain in the first match of the series when Babar Azam was ruled out with a finger injury. He was then dropped from the playing XI once Babar returned and has now been sent home as one of the 7 names, who have been sent home as part of a complete overhaul. Another experienced name who has faced the axe, is their regular wicket-keeper, Mohammed Rizwan. Rizwan has been there top-scorer and the batter with the highest batting average since the start of January 2024. He attempted a couple of horrible swipes in this series, which does not reflect the experience he has on the international level, thus contributing to his name being removed from the touring party, even though he has been one of the few performing individuals for the side in the past few years. Ali Usman, who created the record of being the first visiting spinner in 54 years to take a 5-wicket haul at Headingley and showed some fight with the bat at Lord's has also been mysteriously removed from the side. Other names include Awais Zafar, Aamer Jamal, Khurram Shahzad and opener Imam-ul-Haq, who has been under severe criticism due to his absence in both innings of the Lord’s Test due to a suspected calf injury.

You will be surprised to see the names which have been included as replacement for this dead rubber of a fixture The Team has already lost this series two-nil and currently lie at the bottom of the WTC rankings. With only five Tests remaining, Pakistan do not a chance to reach the final regardless. Even then they decided to shut the noise around them by including five uncapped players at Test level. The other two, namely Saim Ayub and Abdullah Fazal have represented the national site on 8 and 2 occasions, respectively. Even if someone can justify this excuse by some illogical reasoning, naming a 17-men squad for just one Tests match with seven fresh faces makes zero sense. Ideally, this enquiry should have been done after the series with the team, taking a fresh start for the two-match affair with Sri Lanka in November. It is although, the arrogance and stubbornness of their board, who has been under-fire for a long time now that has converted Pakistan into a laughing stock in front of the whole world. 

Aaqib Javed who leads the selection committee for Pakistan cricket decided to replace 7 players in the middle of this tour

It’s not just the players who have faced the wrath. Sarfaraz Ahmed was appointed as a red-ball head coach under mysterious circumstances in April this year. He was joined by Asad Shafiq as the batting coach and Umar Gul as the bowling coach, both of whom have left the job since then. The group remained in-charge of only 6 Test out of which they lost 5 of them, even though the victory against West Indies was Pakistan's first in nine games. Now the board has replace them with their present white-ball coach Mike Hesson who was initially reluctant to take up both jobs. The whole events around this decision-making has left a sour Test in Pakistan cricket. The players have been treated in such a poor way labelling the behavior of the PCB, even more horrible. Rather than giving their management basic respect, they have been served with the worst of punishments, even though the selection committee is equally responsible. This politics has been the main reason behind the current state of Pakistan cricket and it seems like the same will continue with the people representing the nation being made the scapegoat every single time.

England place their trust in the same squad

One team which will be happy and satisfied with all that has unfolded in the last week will be the hosts, England. A side which was under constant criticism due to their behavior outside the cricket field was desperate for some silence in the newspaper headlines. Just a few weeks back, another centrally contracted cricketer for the ECB, Brydon Carse who was part of the aquad named for the first test was seen in handcuffs at a Derby night-club after Durham' win over Derbyshire. Since then he has been put under enquiry with the cricket regulator, as well as the local Police. Carse has been a part of his County's playing XI but England has dropped him from the squad for the final test matches.

England are enjoying a rare positive run with the red-ball team after a long time. This has been there maiden series when since the 2-1 triumph over New Zealand in December 2024. On the forefront has been their pace bowling, especially the likes of Ollie Robinson, Jofra Archer and Josh Tongue. The batting has also done the job as both the newcomers, Jordan Cox and Dan Lawrence scoring a couple of fifties. This has led to their national selector, Marcus North announcing a largely unchanged squad for the final fixture since there was a break of almost 9 days between these two games. England have not announced playing XI on the eve of the Test match as they have traditionally done in the past few years. The hosts have the option of replacing their fast-bowling quartet with the young and fresh Sonny Baker or Sam Cook. Shoaib Bashir is the spin-bowling option.

They batting remains largely similar with the exception of Ollie Pope, who is the extra batting option in the group. The middle-order has shown signs of improvement but the pressure is mounting on Emilio Gay who has scored merely 211 runs in 9 innings. The batters have also not been able to convert starts into three-digit scores. The only century in the five home Tests this year has come from Ben Duckett at Trent Bridge against New Zealand although in the same series, the Kiwis had 5 different players hitting a century. Their skipper and most reliable better Joe Root has gone without a ton in England's home summer since 2019. They will have a last chance to rectify this record at Edgbaston. A white-wash will put them in good stead until the South Africa series away from home in December. 

Selectors resign, PCB unveils more drama

A few months ago, I wrote an article on how the Pakistan cricket has been faltering in all three formats due to multiple reasons. This PCB team has acted as one of the worst performing cricket board administrations in the history of world cricket. Multiple instances of criticising their athletes, promoting favoritism and multiple administrative failures has been their repeated strategy. This time in a desperate need to protect himself, Chairman Mohsin Naqvi has issued a show-cause notice to the selectors for the selection of Rizwan and Imam-ul-Haq for the last two series. Not only have they thrown these players under the bus, a fresh coaching staff has been changed before the series has even wrapped up. Mike Hesson will now become their sixth head coach of the red ball side in the past three and a half years. 

The role of a cricket board in such a disastrous situation is to protect their players from any negativity or mental stress altogether. Nothing of that sort can be seen in this case. Instead, they have publicly called out the selectors and defended their own position in this matter. The selector, Aaqib Javed then went one step ahead and spoke against their national captain also blaming the management for the selections at Lord's putting Imam under scanner, rather than giving him a space for his absence. Misbah-ul-Haq, their former captain and cricket coach has resigned from national selection committee in the aftermath of this horrible episode. 

PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi has ruled over one of the worst periods in Pakistan cricket

The PCB has now decided to confiscate mobile phones of a few personnel and launched an enquiry about their conduct on the tours to England as well as West Indies. They didn't even try to keep this news secret, in order to protect the players from more social media pressure. All these headlines are common for the PCB at this time to make sure that the board gets away from all the blame that is currently falling on them due to the current condition of Pakistan cricket, with Naqvi and co being the real culprits. The same board became the reason behind the sudden resignation/firing of respected names in international cricket, like Jason Gillespie and Gary Kirsten as head coaches within a few months of their appointment. The foreign coaches will now always think before even considering the role due to the politics Naqvi has spread in his tenure. 

Mohsin Naqvi's appointment as the 37th chairman of PCB happened in February 2024, The national team has since lost to USA in the 2024 T20 World Cup, crashed out in the group stages of the ICC Champions Trophy hosted by Pakistan and failed to make the knockouts in the 2026 T20 World Cup where they played their matches in familiar conditions of Sri Lanka. Bangladesh had recently defeated them in an ODI series at home earlier this year and blanked them in both home and away conditions in red-ball cricket. They also lost 11 out of the last 12 away games in the longest moment. Nothing has gone right for them since his appointment still Naqvi keeps pointing to a few bilateral series wins in the white wall formats as well as their promotion in the ICC rankings during his period as the PCB Chairman. There has to be some accountability at one point in order to improve the state of their team in the current scenario. If questions are not asked quickly and no changes are made at the top level, you can expect this group to spiral down even further. They now lie at No.8 position in the ICC Test Team rankings, two spots below Bangladesh. They should also try to follow the successful models of other teams like improving strengthening the domestic structure, organizing regular tours for their A team and selecting the talent on International stage. 

Edgbaston promises another fast-bowling friendly pitch

Skipper Joe Root will return to the ground when he averages 63.2 with three centuries and is the highest run-scorer with 948 runs. Teams have preferred to bat first on this ground 40 out of 57 times, resulting in only 13 victories and 16 classes. England hold a 30-12 record on this ground. Edgbaston generally offers good batting conditions in the starting two innings which is a rarity on English grounds. The role of fast bowlers has been prominent on this venue as expected, given that they have accounted for around 75% of the wickets. Spinners can come into the picture later as the match progresses, with this ground being one of the batters ones in terms of bowling average for the spinners in England. 

Pakistan batter's vulnerability against the pace-bowling in the first two test might enable England to prepare a similar playing surface in the final test of the series. The trio of Archer Robinson and Tongue have dominated the proceedings leaving the visitors with no chance. The weather is expected to hold up, although cloudy skies might be dominant. A sunny Saturday might help break the pitch and bring spinners into play, if the match goes that long. The news of Ali Usman's absence means the visitors are not expected to go select a spinner. The hosts might look to replace Gus Atkinson, who has been off-color in the series with Bashir, although he has an averages of 54.57 and the economy of 3.97 in the 2 Tests he has played on this ground. None of the current Pakistani players have made an appearance on this ground, which makes the task improbable.

Changes galore for the visitors 

There will be a minimum of at least four changes expected in the final match of the series for Pakistan. Opener Imam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Rizwan, Ali Usman, and Khurram Shahzad who took the field at Lord's have been sent home. Saim Ayub has been part of eight test matches as an opener in the past with his last appearance coming against South Africa in January 2025. Southpaw Abdullah Fazal was initial initially ruled out of the West Indies and England tours due to an injury. He has now been included for this match after recovering successfully. Fazal had already impressed in Bangladesh series this year, scoring two fifties in his debut outing. One of them is most likely to replace Imam in the playing XI. Azaan Awais should continue as the opener following a fighting performance in the first innings of the second Test. Shan Masood will likely take the No.3 spot followed by Babar Azam and Saud Shakeel. Abdullah Shafique's spot in the batting lineup might change again.

Ghazi Gouri, the 23-year old wicket-keeper has been a part of this team since Bangladesh tour. Gouri has been a part of 26 Frist-Class matches and averages 41.26 with three centuries. He is set to debut in place of Mohammed Rizwan having already made his bow in ODI cricket this year. It will not be easy to replace Rizwan who was not only their best batter but also excellent with the gloves. A nervous Ghori should try to embrace the moment and play with fearless attitude before he gets a proper run in the side, at least in the end of this WTC. Other five uncapped names include Arafat Minhas, who has already played in both white-ball formats for Pakistan. He has been part of 17 First-Class games, having scored 941 runs and taken 22 wickets. Saad Baig, the 19-year old wicket-keeper has been part of 27 domestic games, averaging 39.52 in red ball cricket. Mohammed Imran Randhawa, a pace-bowling all-rounder as well as Mohammed Imran, 25-year old Left arm medium fast have also been given an opportunity. Razaullah, their 21 year-old medium pacer has taken 30 wickets from 8 Frist-class games so far

Babar himself admitted he unaware of the changes and mentioned that the overhaul was decided without consulting the national team, captain. Mohammed Abbas, their best performer in this series will lead the bowling attack along with Mohammad Ali, who is expected to retain his place after an improved performance in the previous fixture. 20-year old Ubaid Shah, a one match old speedster might be one of the inclusions in the bowling department. The fourth name however, is anyone's best guess. We are doubtful that either Babar or Mike Hesson have seen much of the newcomers in this word, so a decision will only be based on their performance in the net sessions. The visitors should opt for a fearless attitude on the ground, given an unexpected victory seems extremely unlikely. Pakistan are scheduled to post Sri Lanka & New Zealand at home and a fighting display going into the final matches of this WTC cycle will help the cause. There is a huge learning curve for the young team and a lot of self-searching needs to be done before we can actually see any improvement by Pakistan cricket in the longest format. The board, selectors, coaches and the leadership group needs to come together and form a basic agreement on how to take the team forward if there is any seriousness left for the betterment of the national team. Can they make this start at Birmingham?

References: Statsguru by ESPNCricinfo