Mike Hesson is Pakistan’s sixth Test head coach in 34 months. The PCB confirmed the mid-series switch on September 1, 2026, after Pakistan lost the first two Tests in England by an innings and 103 runs at Headingley and 194 runs at Lord’s.
Sarfaraz Ahmed and bowling coach Umar Gul were removed. Seven players were sent home: Mohammad Rizwan, Imam-ul-Haq, Salman Ali Agha, Ali Usman, Aamer Jamal, Awais Zafar, and Khurram Shahzad. Saim Ayub, Abdullah Fazal, and Arafat Minhas were called up as replacements, with four more pending UK visas.
Hesson, already Pakistan’s white-ball head coach since May 2025, takes charge of the Test squad for the third Test at Edgbaston starting September 9. Ashley Noffke replaces Gul as bowling coach.
The scale of change mid-tour is staggering. Pakistan did not just replace a coach. They gutted the squad, triggered the chief selector’s resignation, and handed the job to someone hired for a completely different format.
Chief selector Misbah-ul-Haq resigned after the PCB’s Chief Operating Officer Sumair Ahmad Syed issued a show-cause notice demanding the selection committee explain why Rizwan and Imam-ul-Haq were picked for the England tour. The selectors were given 24 hours to respond.
Misbah also stepped down from his batting consultant role at the National Cricket Academy. The PCB has not accepted his resignation.
Sarfaraz Ahmed’s tenure lasted four months. He won one Test and lost five. Pakistan failed to pass 200 in any innings during the England series, with Saud Shakeel’s 97 at Lord’s the closest anyone came to a century.
The coaching carousel tells the full story.
| Coach | Period | Duration | Key Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grant Bradburn | May–Nov 2023 | 6 months | 2-0 vs Sri Lanka, then sacked after World Cup exit |
| Mohammad Hafeez | Nov 2023–Feb 2024 | 3 months | 0-3 vs Australia in Tests |
| Jason Gillespie | Apr–Dec 2024 | 8 months | Beat Bangladesh 2-0, lost to Australia 0-3 |
| Azhar Mahmood | Jun–Dec 2025 | 6 months | Mixed results across formats |
| Sarfaraz Ahmed | Apr–Aug 2026 | 4 months | 0-2 in England, sacked mid-tour |
| Mike Hesson | Sep 2026–present | — | Inherits a broken squad |
Six coaches. Average tenure: five months. No coach has lasted long enough to complete a full World Test Championship cycle.
Mike Hesson Takes Charge of a Fractured Squad
Hesson coached New Zealand from 2012 to 2018, reaching the 2015 World Cup final. He served as Director of Cricket at Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL and coached Islamabad United in the PSL before the PCB hired him for white-ball duties.
His white-ball record with Pakistan has been strong. He lifted the win rate from 20 percent to around 70 percent, according to his own assessment in June 2026.
“Our first objective was to build consistency in both performances and results, and we have achieved that. We are now winning far more series than before. Our success rate has risen from 20 percent to around 70 percent.”
Mike Hesson, press conference, June 2026
But white-ball consistency is a different problem to Test cricket. Hesson walks into a dressing room where seven teammates were just removed, two coaches were fired, and the chief selector resigned. The trust deficit inside that squad is enormous.
Pakistan are already eliminated from WTC final contention, having lost five of their last six Tests. After Edgbaston, two Tests in Sri Lanka follow in November, then two in New Zealand in early 2027.
Former Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur did not hold back.
“Absolutely ridiculous decisions by the PCB. This is the reason they are in the mess they are because they constantly chop and change players, coaches and selectors and there is no stability! Planning, stability and structure = Consistent performance!!”
Mickey Arthur, X (formerly Twitter), September 1, 2026
Absolutely ridiculous decisions by the PCB-this is the reason they are in the mess they are because they constantly chop and change players,coaches and selectors and there in no stability!
Planning,stability and structure =Consistent performance!! https://t.co/LQzN94hf0Z— Mickey Arthur (@Mickeyarthurcr1) August 31, 2026
Arthur coached Pakistan from 2016 to 2019. His verdict carries weight because he lived through the same system. The pattern he describes has not changed. It has accelerated.
Insider Read
No coach can build a Test team in five months. Test cricket demands a bowling attack that trusts its plans over multiple sessions, a batting lineup drilled for specific conditions, and players whose roles have been defined and refined over a full cycle.
None of that is possible when the average coaching tenure is shorter than a single away tour. Hesson is a capable coach, but that is not the question.
The question is whether anyone, regardless of ability, can succeed in a role the PCB has made structurally impossible to hold. Six coaches in 34 months is not a coaching crisis. It is an institutional one.
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