Mike Hesson, interim head coach of Pakistan's cricket team, hopes his revamped squad can improve against England in their next match after a 2-0 series lead. The Pakistan Cricket Board made significant changes to the team, sending home seven players and replacing the Test coach with Hesson. Key to these changes is that only two of the new replacements have Test experience, while the old players have likely been used to "chaos" in their team dynamics. Hesson believes his team can now present a more balanced attack against England's lineup.
Written by the local model on 2026-09-04,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
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Story summary
Pakistan's cricket team has undergone significant changes in response to their two defeats in the first two tests against England. The Pakistan Cricket Board replaced test coach Sarfaraz Ahmed with Mike Hesson, who is already the white-ball head coach, and brought in bowling coach Ashley Nofke to take over from Umar Gul. Seven players were sent home, including senior players Imam-ul-Haq and Salman Ali Agha, and seven new players were called up, including batsmen Saim Ayub and Abdullah Fazal. The changes have been met with criticism from former Pakistan cricketers like Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Malik. Despite the chaos, Hesson believes that his players are more used to it than he is, and hopes that they can come together and give a better performance in the third test at Birmingham's Edgbaston stadium on September 9.
Written for “Pakistan Cricket Team Shake Up” on 2026-09-05,
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Leaning score -0.35 for article 4006 (high confidence, 1 verified quote) · logged 2026-09-04
Interim Pakistan head coach Mike Hesson hopes his drastically revamped squad can come through some all too familiar “chaos” with a much-improved showing against England in next week’s third and final Test in Birmingham.
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squad → hop → Birmingham
Pakistan suffered an innings and 103-run loss in the series opener at Headingley, before going down by 194 runs at Lord’s on Sunday as England took an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the three-match campaign.
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England → suffer → campaign
The Pakistan Cricket Board responded to those defeats in dramatic fashion, taking the extraordinary step of sending seven players home, calling up another seven and replacing sacked Test coach Sarfaraz Ahmed with Hesson, already Pakistan’s white-ball boss.
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Board → respond → Hesson
Senior players Imam-ul-Haq and Salman Ali Agha — Pakistan’s captain at Headingley when Babar Azam was injured — were among those told to leave.
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Azam → injure → those
Left-arm spin bowler Ali Usman, who claimed a five-wicket haul at Headingley, and seamer Khurram Shahzad were also sent home.
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who → claim → Headingley
Of the seven replacements, only batsmen Saim Ayub and Abdullah Fazal have Test experience.
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Ayub → have → experience
Hesson, however, feels the whole squad can now unite and give a better account of themselves when the third Test at Edgbaston starts on September 9.
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Test → feel → September
The New Zealander had recently been in Japan preparing for the Asian Games and was only due to travel to the UK for the squad’s audience with King Charles, which took place on Wednesday.
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which → prepare → Wednesday
“I was heading over to see the King and be part of a nice occasion.
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I → head → occasion
That got expedited,” Hesson told reporters at Edgbaston on Friday, as quoted by the BBC.
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Hesson → expedite → BBC
“The last couple of days have been challenging for being in a hotel with some players coming, some players going and then the arrival of everyone.
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players → challenge → everyone
There is no doubt they have been disappointed, incredibly disappointed.
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they → be → ?
We have had to park that and go ‘righto, where to from here?’
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We → have → that
Hesson added: “I don’t think anyone wants this to happen in the middle of a series.
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this → add → series
“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,” he adds.
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he → put → attack
“Pakistan is known for the pace, unusual actions, mystery spin — we haven’t really been able to present any of that.”
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we → know → that
