With Pakistan sending seven players, including Muhammad Rizwan, Imam-ul-Haq and Salman Ali Agha back home after the defeat in the second Test against England last week, Pakistan cricket has seen a lot of chaos in the England tour.

Pakistan Cricket Board also released Aamir Jamal and Mohammad Jafar, who did not play in the first two matches of the three-Test tour. PCB replaced the seven players with Saim Ayub, Abdullah Fazal, Arafat Minhas, Mohammed Imran Jr, Said Baig, Mohammad Imran and Razaullah and also released head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed and assistant coach Umar Gul to be replaced by Mike Hesson and Ashley Nofke. Former England captain Nasser Hussain has blasted the PCB management over the issue and shared how PCB’s job is to alleviate pressure and not put ‘war pressure’ on the team.

“I mean, you look at the great teams, it’s all about the greater purpose, making the whole greater than the sum of his parts, whether it be Viv Richards and Clive Lloyd with the West Indies, and bringing islands together and seeing the greater cause and playing for the maroon cap or the Australian great side under Steve Waugh and the Baggy Green. That’s how you create a side by making players feel wanted. And a sort of ignominy of sending him home. Senior players like Mohammad Rizwan.

“That’s okay, he’s played a couple of bad shots, but he would have given his heart and soul for Pakistan cricket. Ali Usman there and getting that first cap, and everything you go through to play for Pakistan. All that does is for the future, however well they go at Edgbaston, the players, the coaches, they will know the first time they fail, but this may well happen to them. The whole point of that administration is to alleviate pressure, not put more pressure. I mean, it may be a stroke of genius, but it hasn’t worked out in the past, so why should it work now?” said Hussain while speaking on Sky Sports Cricket Podcast.

The Lord’s Test also saw Pakistan batter Imam-ul-Haq embroiled in a controversy with the batter seen batting with an injured leg on the outfield as play was about to begin on the fourth day of the Test match. Haq, who was reported having a calf injury, did not bat in both the innings.

While England pacer Stuart Broad too had criticised Haq for making the injury a spectacle, Pakistan’s chairman of selector Aqib Javed had spoken with Geo TV and shared a statement regarding Haq’s injury situation and shared how Haq will have to face an enquiry. Hussain shared how it could have been avoided and how the situation could have been handled.

“I can’t believe how a director of high performance could go on TV and literally throw.. Rightly or wrongly. I mean, Stuart Broad was very strong on the last morning when he was out doing throw downs and hobbling around, get it, you know, do it in the indoor school. But to throw him under the bus like that. He’s either injured or he’s not. In any other touring slide, we get upstairs, we ask, “How’s Imam doing? He’s got a grade two scan, and he will only bat  if needed.” I mean, the whole handling of the Imam situation is ridiculous.. And generally, you got to protect your players a little bit, not constantly throw them under the bus,” said Hussain.

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Pakistan’s loss at Lord’s was the team’s 15th loss in the last 20 Tests. Hussain also shared how his rant after the Lord’s Test was for Pakistan not fighting back in the Test. “I don’t think after Headingley that the world was laughing at Pakistan. My rant at Lord’s was about them not fighting back, about India vs Pakistan games being very one-sided and that theywere a poor side playing poorly and I wasn’t laughing at them,” he added.