Pakistan sacks its Test coach and sends seven players home mid-series

The Pakistan Cricket Board announced on 1 September that head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed and bowling coach Umar Gul were released from the England tour, and that seven players would fly home before the third Test at Edgbaston on 9 September. White-ball coach Mike Hesson of New Zealand takes the Test job for the remaining match. Australian seamer Ashley Noffke replaces Gul.

England already lead the three-match series 2-0. Pakistan lost the first Test at Headingley by an innings and 103 runs and the second at Lord's by 194 runs. In four innings they did not pass 200. The board's statement gave no reason and named no meeting at which the decisions were taken. Players learned of the cuts from social media posts of the release, according to reporting in The Telegraph.

The seven sent home are Mohammad Rizwan, Imam-ul-Haq, Salman Ali Agha, Ali Usman, Aamer Jamal, Muhammad Awais Zafar and Khurram Shahzad. Imam has a left calf tear. Rizwan and Salman are former captains. Salman led the side in the Headingley defeat.

Who comes in, and how little Test cricket they have

The replacements include Saim Ayub and Abdullah Fazal, who have eight and two Tests between them, and Arafat Minhas, Mohammad Imran Jnr, Saad Baig, Mohammad Imran Randhawa and Razaullah. Several of those names have no Test cap. Taken together, the new group has a thin red-ball record for a match at Edgbaston against an England side that has already won the series.

Sarfaraz, 39, was appointed Test coach in April after work at under-19 level and a two-Test series in the Caribbean. In six Tests in charge he has one result that is not a defeat. Five losses in six matches is the ledger the board used. Gul's explanation for the seam attack at Leeds, that the weather was cold, irritated officials who wanted a different account of the bowling.

Misbah-ul-Haq, a selector and former captain, emailed his resignation on Monday night after saying he had not been consulted, sources told AFP. The board had not accepted it by Tuesday. The selection committee still lists him. Former captain Shahid Afridi called the sacking after five Tests the most shocking decision a committee with so many experienced names had taken. Ramiz Raja, another former captain and a former PCB chairman, told BBC Radio the board had hit the panic button. Mickey Arthur, a former Pakistan coach, called the situation ridiculous.

A familiar pattern with a mid-series twist

Pakistan boards have long treated coaches as disposable after a bad series. What is unusual is the timing. The third Test is eight days away. The men who have to bat and bowl at Edgbaston are a mixture of those who survived the cut and those who have barely played Test cricket in England. Hesson and Noffke know the white-ball group. They have a week to turn that knowledge into a red-ball plan against an England attack that has already dismissed this batting order twice.

The PCB has also made itself a public laughing stock among the touring party by announcing the sackings before telling the men involved. That is a separate failure from the scores. It tells the replacements that their own tenure can end the same way, by statement, if Edgbaston goes the way of Headingley and Lord's.

England will name an unchanged or near-unchanged side. Pakistan will name a side that did not exist on Sunday evening. The series is gone. What remains is whether a mid-tour purge produces a competitive third Test or a third heavy defeat with a younger, less tested XI. Hesson has until 9 September to find out.