'In shambles': Cricket world reacts as Pakistan make 7 changes in squad in the middle of disastrous England tour

'In shambles': Cricket world reacts as Pakistan make 7 changes in squad in the middle of disastrous England tour originally appeared on Cricket News. Add Cricket News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Pakistan released seven players and two coaches ahead of the dead-rubber Edgbaston Test.

Mike Hesson replaces Sarfaraz Ahmed as head coach for the third Test.

Four of the seven replacements are uncapped at Test level.

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Pakistan shocks the world with their drastic decision

Pakistan's disastrous tour of England has produced a response as dramatic as the results that prompted it. Following a 194-run defeat at Lord's that handed England an unassailable 2-0 series lead, the PCB tore up both its squad and its backroom staff before the final Test at Edgbaston, which is now nothing more than a dead rubber.

Seven players were released, five of whom had featured in the series. Mohammad Rizwan, Imam-ul-Haq, Salman Ali Agha, Ali Usman and Khurram Shahzad were all sent home, along with Aamir Jamal and Muhammad Awais Zafar, who did not play a match.

The coaching upheaval was every bit as sweeping. Head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed and bowling coach Umar Gul were relieved of their duties, with white-ball coach Mike Hesson and former Australia seamer Ashley Noffke stepping in for the remainder of the World Test Championship cycle.

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MORE: Seven players sent home: Pakistan take drastic action in the middle of disastrous England tour

The seven changes Pakistan made to their Edgbaston squad

The seven replacements underline the scale of the reset, with five of them yet to make their Test debuts. Saim Ayub and Abdullah Fazal, capped in eight and two Tests respectively, are the only experienced additions.

The uncapped quintet comprises spin-bowling all-rounder Arafat Minhas, left-arm seamer Mohammad Imran Jnr, wicketkeeper Saad Baig, and pace-bowling all-rounders Mohammad Imran and Razaullah.

Baig arrives as the Player of the Tournament from the 2025-26 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy. The context makes the overhaul all the more striking. Salman Ali Agha captained the first Test in Babar Azam's absence, served as twelfth man in the second, and has now been dropped from the touring party entirely.

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Imam-ul-Haq's exit followed heavy criticism at Lord's, where he did not bat in either innings after sustaining a calf injury on the opening day.

MORE: Ex-Pakistan star takes brutal swipe at Babar Azam, calls him a 'great player only for social media,' not a match-winner

Cricket world reacts to Pakistan's mid-tour shambles

The mid-series nature of the changes drew widespread disbelief, with Wisden editor Lawrence Booth among the first to respond.

"More Pakistan shambles, as seven players are released from their Test squad: Rizwan, Imam-ul-Haq, Salman Agha, Ali Usman, Jamal, Zafar and Shahzad. Replacements include Saim Ayub, Abdullah Fazal and Arafat Minhas. Sarfaraz Ahmed replaced as coach by Mike Hesson. What a mess," Booth wrote.

Telegraph journalist Will Macpherson was equally incredulous at the timing.

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"Totally normal stuff from Pakistan, who have replaced their coaches mid-tour and sent seven players home. Seven replacements, including five uncapped players," he wrote.

Journalist Talha Nawaz framed the episode as unprecedented in the country's history. He wrote that for the first time in Pakistan Test cricket, players, coaching staff and major decisions were all being changed mid-series rather than before it, calling it a truly unusual chapter.

Cricket writer Bharath Ramaraj argued the reshuffle addressed symptoms rather than causes, pointing to deeper structural failings.

"Bringing in X coach at the nth moment or sending a player back to Pakistan won't change much. Appoint a good batting coach. Leave alone Test cricket, Pakistan need to delve deeper into T20 cricket when it comes to problems with their batting unit. Just delve deeper into grassroots cricket," Ramaraj wrote.

The plight of Salman Ali Agha drew particular sympathy, with one fan summing up his week neatly. "Captain in 1st Test, 12th man in second Test, dropped from touring squad before 3rd test. Ladies and Gentlemen pak cricket at its very best," they wrote.

Former Pakistan cricketer Bazid Khan mocked PCB's decision, as he wrote on X: "An overhaul mid series. Even by Pakistan standards this is ultra pro max."

Journalist Ben Gardener wrote, "Amazing for Pakistan to pick 24 players in total for a Test tour of England and not have any of them be Naseem Shah or Shaheen Shah Afridi."

MORE: Latif slams PCB as 'worst cricket board in 70 years' after horror ENG Test series

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Why the overhaul treats the symptom rather than the disease

There is a certain logic to blooding uncapped players in a dead rubber, and giving the likes of Saad Baig and Arafat Minhas a look ahead of the New Zealand assignment is defensible on its own terms. A series already lost is as good a place as any to experiment.

The problem, as Ramaraj identified, is that wholesale change delivered in a panic rarely addresses what actually went wrong. Pakistan lost eight first-innings wickets for 74 runs at Headingley and were bowled out for 110 at Lord's, collapses rooted in technique and temperament that no mid-tour coaching switch can fix in nine days.

The deeper worry is the instability itself. Shan Masood was replaced as captain by Babar before the tour, the coaching staff has now turned over mid-series, and seven players have been discarded in one announcement.

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A side that changes this much, this often, is unlikely to build the settled foundations Test cricket demands, and Edgbaston looks less like a fresh start than the latest symptom of a system in disarray.

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