Pakistan’s new red ball head coach Mike Hesson has said that senior players Muhammad Rizwan, Imam-ul-Haq and Salman Ali Agha had already been sent back home by the management when he had been given the role and so it wasn’t his call. He said that he instead had a role to play in the replacements that were made after the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) took the drastic step of sending back as many as seven players from England after the heavy defeats suffered in the first two Tests of their tour of the country.

Apart from the release of players, PCB also sacked Sarfraz Ahmed as head coach of the side and brought in Hesson, who was head coach of the limited overs setup. “Look when they (Pakistan Cricket Board) told me if I could manage the side for the final Test, these three players (Rizwan, Agha and Imam) were already released from the squad and (were) on their way home. So, I really don’t know what happened there,” Hesson told a media conference in Birmingham.

“We already had a white-ball camp in Lahore and I had just returned from Japan where the Asian Games are taking place, when I was asked if I could manage the red-ball squad,” he added.

“I decided to make some changes in the squad to get balance into the squad and my emphasis has been on having a bowling attack which has variety and where we have a couple of bowling all rounders,” he said.

Pakistan’s management has been roundly criticised for the way they have handled the players. There was particular surprise at Agha being dropped as he was captain of the team in the first Test. Hesson said that while the last couple of days have been difficult, he is happy with how the team has responded to the changes.

“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,” said Hesson.

“The guys are probably more used to a little bit of chaos than I am,” he said. “There’s no doubt they have been disappointed, incredibly disappointed. We’ve had to park that and go ‘righto, where to from here?’ They’ve been really good over the past couple of days.”