Hesson says Pakistan's players are more used to the chaos than he is

Handed the Test side mid-series after seven players and two coaches were removed, Pakistan's interim red-ball coach has been candid about what he walked into

Mike Hesson has taken interim charge of Pakistan's Test team days before the final match of a lost series in England, and he has not pretended the circumstances are normal.

"It's been pretty challenging," he said. "The guys are probably more used to a little bit of chaos than I am."

Hesson, previously Pakistan's white-ball coach, replaces Sarfaraz Ahmed, who was appointed in April and removed four months later.

What happened, and when

Pakistan lost the first Test at Headingley by an innings and 103 runs and the second at Lord's by 194 runs. Between that second defeat and the third Test, the board released seven players and both the head coach and the bowling coach.

Mohammad Rizwan, Imam-ul-Haq, Salman Ali Agha, Ali Usman, Aamir Jamal, Muhammad Awais Zafar and Khurram Shahzad all went. Umar Gul left the bowling coach's role, with former Australia seamer Ashley Noffke replacing him.

Hesson was explicit that the decisions were not his to make, noting that three players had been released before he arrived.

That sequencing matters. It means the squad Hesson takes to Edgbaston was reshaped around him rather than by him, and he inherits both the group and the reasoning behind it.

A dressing room to put back together

The immediate job was less about tactics than about the people still in the squad.

"There is no doubt they have been incredibly disappointed," Hesson said of the players. "We have had to park that and go 'right, where to from here?' They have been really good the past couple of days."

He was equally direct about the timing. "I don't think anyone wants this to happen in the middle of a series," he said.

The cricket problem underneath it

Hesson's diagnosis of the team was more interesting than his account of the upheaval, and less about personnel than about identity.

"Pakistan is known for the pace, unusual actions, mystery spin," he said. "We haven't really been able to present any of that."

That is a fair reading of a series in which Pakistan were beaten inside four days twice. His stated aim for Edgbaston is narrower and more practical: "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."

Variety is the operative word. Pakistan's attack in the first two Tests offered England a narrow set of problems to solve, and England solved them quickly enough to win both matches with a day to spare.

Instability as the pattern

The churn is not new. Pakistan have changed Test head coach six times in a little over three years, a rate at which no coaching plan survives long enough to be judged.

Sarfaraz's four months are short even by that standard. He was brought in specifically to steady the red-ball side and was removed midway through the first away series of his tenure.

Hesson himself is careful to describe the role as temporary, saying he is coming in as an interim, which leaves the appointment unresolved past this tour.

He also had a word for the speculation surrounding the tour, saying simply that people are making up stories.

Pakistan play the third Test at Edgbaston from 9 September, 2-0 down, with a coach who did not pick the squad and seven players who are no longer in it.

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