Pakistan stagger into Edgbaston this week not so much chasing a consolation win as trying to salvage their identity from a tour that has veered into full-blown crisis.
Two crushing defeats – an innings loss at Headingley followed by a 194-run beating at Lord’s – have already sealed the series for England. The margin has been brutal. The reaction back home, even by Pakistan’s turbulent standards, has been more dramatic still.
A cull in the middle of a series
In a move that stunned even seasoned watchers of Pakistan cricket, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) ripped up their squad after Lord’s. Seven players were sent home. Seven replacements were summoned, five of them uncapped at Test level. All of this with one match still to play.
Test coach Sarfaraz Ahmed was sacked. Bowling coach Umar Gul went with him. In their place, the PCB turned to Pakistan’s white-ball staff: Mike Hesson to run the Test side, Ashley Noffke to take charge of the bowlers.
Collateral damage included Salman Ali Agha, who had captained at Headingley when Babar Azam was injured, and left-arm spinner Ali Usman, fresh from a five-wicket haul in that same match. Both were told to pack their bags. So too were the experienced wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan and opener Imam-ul-Haq, who never made it to the crease at Lord’s because of a calf injury.
It was chaos, even by Pakistan’s own rich history of upheaval.
“The guys are probably more used to a little bit of chaos than I am,” Hesson admitted last week. “I don’t think anyone wants this to happen in the middle of a series.”
The former New Zealand head coach tried to frame the overhaul as a reset rather than a panic. “From my perspective, it is about putting a balanced squad together, not only for this Test, so we actually have some variety in our attack. Pakistan is known for the pace, unusual actions, mystery spin – we haven’t really been able to present any of that.”
Edgbaston will show how quickly he can change that – and how much damage has already been done.
Fingers pointed at the top
On the outside, this looks like a team falling apart. Inside Pakistan cricket, attention has turned higher up.
Azhar Ali, part of the side that climbed to No 1 in the Test rankings a decade ago, has laid much of the blame at the door of Aaqib Javed, the PCB’s high performance director since 2024. “Every decision he makes backfires, and he then says: ‘It’s not me’,” Azhar told the Guardian.
Jason Gillespie, who has previously coached Pakistan, echoed the sentiment, saying Javed needed to “look at himself in the mirror”.
The PCB responded on Monday by announcing an investigation into the squad’s conduct in England. It was a pointed move, but one that does little to help the players now thrown into a deciding Test with no warm-up games, no time in the middle, and little chance to understand English conditions before the first ball in Birmingham.
For those new faces, Edgbaston will feel less like an opportunity and more like an examination.
England smell a whitewash
Across the divide, England sense a clean sweep.
Joe Root’s side have already wrapped up their first Test series win in more than a year, and they have done it with a ruthless edge that stands in stark contrast to the excesses that marked the end of the Bazball era. Where once there was reckless bravado, there is now control, discipline, and a seam attack that has hunted as a pack.
Root, now second on Test cricket’s all-time run-scoring list, spoke after Lord’s of a “perfect storm” for batting: seam-friendly pitches, heavy skies, and responsive Dukes balls. Both sides have felt it. Only one has coped.
Pakistan have yet to reach 200 in any of their four innings. England’s revamped pace quartet – Ollie Robinson, Jofra Archer, Josh Tongue and Gus Atkinson – have exposed technical flaws, mental frailty and a chronic lack of adjustment from the tourists. Each spell has seemed to peel away another layer of confidence.
The challenge for England now is simple: finish the job. Maintain the professionalism that has defined this series. Deliver Root, back as captain, a 3–0 whitewash to frame the start of his second tenure.
A win… or another illusion?
For Pakistan, the stakes are more complicated.
A victory at Edgbaston would be celebrated wildly by their supporters. It would also risk something more insidious: the illusion that one good week can mask the rot beneath. This is a side that has lost 15 of its last 20 Tests. The old cliché paints Pakistan as mercurial, capable of brilliance and collapse in the same session.
Right now, they are something worse – predictable.
Azhar Ali captured the mood with a line that will sting in the dressing room: “We’ve become totally consistent – in the most negative way.”
So Pakistan arrive in Birmingham with a patched-up squad, a new coaching ticket, no practice games and a fanbase torn between hope and dread. England arrive with momentum, clarity and a bowling unit tuned perfectly to the conditions.
One team is trying to complete a statement series. The other is trying to remember what it feels like to be Pakistan again.
