11 coaches in 5 years, 7 players out mid-series: Why Pakistan Cricket keeps hitting reset button

Pakistan cricket has hit the reset button yet again, that too in middle of an ongoing series.

Mike Hesson, appointed as the team’s white-ball head coach in May 2025, has now been asked to take charge of the Test side after Sarfaraz Ahmed was removed following Pakistan’s 0-2 series defeat to England.

The latest overhaul goes beyond the coaching staff. The Pakistan Cricket Board has released seven players from the Test squad, including Mohammad Rizwan, Imam-ul-Haq and Salman Ali Agha, while former Australia fast-bowling coach Ashley Noffke has joined Hesson in the revamped red-ball setup.


Pakistan have lost five of their last six Tests and are already out of contention for the World Test Championship final. The third Test against England begins in Birmingham on September 9.

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The scale of the changes has once again raised a familiar question around Pakistan cricket: is the board making necessary course corrections, or is another poor run triggering another wholesale reset?

The latest overhaul, as described by Cricbuzz, is an “unprecedented shake-up”, with the coaching changes coming alongside the release of seven players.

From Misbah to Hesson, Pakistan keeps changing course

The latest shake-up is part of a pattern that has defined Pakistan cricket for years.

Misbah-ul-Haq, who served as Pakistan’s head coach and chief selector, stepped down in September 2021 with a year still remaining on his contract. Saqlain Mushtaq and Abdul Razzaq were brought in as interim coaches before Saqlain took over permanently.

Pakistan then moved through a series of coaching and management combinations rather than maintaining a settled structure.

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In 2023, Grant Bradburn became head coach on a two-year contract, while Mickey Arthur was appointed team director. Following the 2023 World Cup, Mohammad Hafeez came in as team director as the PCB reshaped its senior management again.

The biggest structural experiment came in April 2024, when the PCB appointed Gary Kirsten as white-ball head coach and Jason Gillespie to lead the Test side. Both were handed two-year contracts, with Azhar Mahmood appointed assistant coach across formats.

That arrangement did not last.

Kirsten resigned in October 2024 and Gillespie left soon after. Aqib Javed then took charge on an interim basis before the PCB began looking for a permanent white-ball coach.

Hesson himself came in after a vacancy

There is an added irony to Hesson's latest role.

The New Zealander was appointed Pakistan’s permanent white-ball head coach in May 2025 after the PCB invited applications to fill the vacancy created following Pakistan’s tour of New Zealand.

Hesson, who had coached New Zealand from 2012 to 2018 and later worked with Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the Indian Premier League, formally took charge on May 26, 2025.

The appointment was supposed to give Pakistan a permanent hand for its white-ball teams.

Instead, just over a year later, Hesson has been moved into the Test setup as the PCB once again changes direction.

For the Test side, the board had meanwhile appointed Azhar Mahmood as acting red-ball head coach after Gillespie’s departure. Sarfaraz Ahmed subsequently took over the Test job ahead of Pakistan’s Bangladesh series in 2026.

His stint lasted only months.

England defeat triggers another overhaul

Pakistan’s 0-2 deficit against England proved the trigger for the latest changes.

The PCB released Sarfaraz and bowling coach Umar Gul and handed the Test side to Hesson. Noffke has joined him in the revamped coaching setup.

Hesson will now oversee Pakistan’s Test team for the remainder of the current World Test Championship cycle, including two Tests in Sri Lanka in November and two in New Zealand early next year.

But the changes have not stopped with the coaching staff.

The PCB said Mohammad Rizwan, Imam-ul-Haq, Salman Ali Agha, Ali Usman, Aamir Jamal, Muhammad Awais Zafar and Khurram Shahzad were all released from the Test squad following the Lord’s Test.

Seven replacements were named, including Saim Ayub, Abdullah Fazal, Arafat Minhas, Mohammad Imran Jnr, Saad Baig, Mohammad Imran and Razaullah.

That makes the latest intervention more than a coaching change. A significant part of the Test setup has been rebuilt at the same time.

Why Pakistan keeps hitting reset

Pakistan’s coaching churn has involved more than simply replacing one head coach with another.

The PCB has repeatedly changed the structure around the team, moving between all-format coaches, separate red-ball and white-ball coaches, team directors, interim appointments and combined management roles.

Even longer contracts have not guaranteed continuity.

Kirsten and Gillespie were both given two-year deals in 2024, but neither completed the tenure. Hesson, meanwhile, was brought in specifically to provide continuity to the white-ball side and is now taking on Test responsibilities as well.

The instability was acknowledged by Bradburn himself during a 2023 interview with Cricbuzz. “There is a lot of short-termism in Pakistan cricket, there’s a lot of turnover of personnel and players,” he said.

The repeated changes also mean coaches inherit teams and systems built by their predecessors, often without enough time to establish their own methods.

That creates a cycle: poor results lead to a change in management, the new management reshapes the squad, and another run of poor results can trigger another reset.

The latest move has therefore put the spotlight not just on Sarfaraz’s short tenure or Pakistan’s poor Test results, but on the larger question of whether the PCB can build a stable cricketing structure.