Mike Hesson has coached long enough to think he has seen most things international cricket can throw at a man. Then he walked into Pakistan’s red‑ball setup this week.
Players leaving. Players arriving. Coaches swapped out mid-series. A “dead rubber” at Edgbaston that suddenly feels like a live experiment in how much upheaval a Test side can absorb.
“The last couple of days have been challenging,” Hesson admitted on Friday, describing a hotel lobby that looked more like a revolving door than a team base. Some players coming, some going, then the full group finally assembling. He smiled as he said it, but the subtext was obvious: this is not how elite Test preparation is supposed to look.
The thing is, for Pakistan, it almost is.
“The guys are probably more used to a little bit of chaos than I am,” he said. “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.”
A Knee-Jerk Overhaul
Two brutal defeats at Lord’s and Headingley have shaken the Pakistan Cricket Board into drastic action. With the series already gone 2–0 and one Test to play, the PCB has effectively torn up the original plan.
Seven players dropped. The Test coach, Sarfaraz Ahmed, removed. Bowling coach Umar Gul replaced by Ashley Nofke. Hesson, already in charge of the white-ball side, pulled from an Asian Games build-up in Japan and told to take over the red-ball team for the third Test.
He wasn’t even meant to be in England yet, beyond a brief appearance for last Wednesday’s audience with King Charles. Instead, he now fronts a squad that barely resembles the one that started the tour.
The selection committee, including Aaqib Javed, and PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi have publicly defended the mid-series surgery. Critics, among them former stars Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Malik, have lined up on the other side. This is Pakistan cricket: the debate is loud, the stakes are high, and the timing is rarely gentle.
By the time Hesson landed in the UK, the clear-out was already underway.
“When I took over, three players had already left the squad, Rizwan, Imam and Salman Ali Agha,” he said.
Wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan, opener Imam-ul-Haq and Salman Ali Agha — who captained in the first Test — formed the first wave out of the camp. Fast bowler Khurram Shahzad and left-arm spinner Ali Usman, both used in the opening two Tests, were also released. All-rounder Aamir Jamal and Mohammad Awais went home without a single appearance at Lord’s or Headingley.
No coach wants to inherit a moving target in the middle of a series. Hesson made that clear. But he also knows complaining won’t change a thing.
Hunting for Variety and X-Factor
His immediate task is brutally simple: make this patched-together squad competitive against an England side that has dominated the first two matches.
From his point of view, that starts with balance and bite.
“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,” he said. “Pakistan is known for the pace, unusual actions, mystery spin — we haven’t really been able to present any of that.”
That identity — pace, quirk, and mystery — has defined Pakistan cricket for decades. In this series, it has barely flickered. Hesson wants it back.
“From a bowling point of view, we have got to find some variety,” he 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.”
So the selectors have rolled the dice.
Five uncapped players come into the squad: spin all-rounder Arafat Minhas, left-arm quick Mohammad Imran Jr., wicketkeeper Saad Baig, all-rounder Mohammad Imran and fast bowler Razaullah. Joining them on the flight to the UK are Saim Ayub and Abdullah Fazal, who between them have just 10 Test caps.
It is a bold play, bordering on ruthless. Experience has been jettisoned for potential. Security for volatility.
Hesson insists he knows what he is working with.
“I know all the players that are here now,” he said. “Some I’ve worked with a bit, some I’ve said hello to a handful of times and watched them play.”
Not exactly the luxury of a long-term red-ball project, but enough, he believes, to build something functional — and perhaps dangerous — for one Test.
A Dead Rubber That Isn’t
On paper, the Edgbaston match is a dead rubber. Series lost. Trophy gone. In practice, it feels like a starting gun.
For Hesson, it is a first look at Pakistan’s next generation under Test pressure. For the PCB, it is an early verdict on a sweeping, controversial reset. For the players drafted in at short notice, it is the kind of opportunity that can shape careers.
Pakistan have walked into Birmingham with their usual baggage: politics, noise, sudden change. The difference this time is that the chaos has been made official, signed off in boardrooms and selection meetings.
If Hesson can turn that turmoil into the kind of unpredictable, attacking cricket Pakistan fans crave, this “dead” Test might just be remembered as the moment something new began.
