Big Trouble for Sarfaraz Ahmed as PCB Reportedly Hands Test Duties to Mike Hesson

Sarfaraz Ahmed’s tenure as Pakistan’s red-ball head coach appears to be ending the same way it began roughly three months ago: under pressure, mid-tour, with a New Zealander waiting in the wings to take over.

Pakistan’s 194-run defeat to England at Lord’s has put Sarfaraz’s future “in serious doubt,” according to Geo News Urdu reporting, after the loss handed England an unassailable 2-0 series lead. Pakistan, chasing 389 for victory, were bowled out for 194 — a collapse that followed an even heavier defeat in the series opener at Leeds, where Pakistan lost by an innings and 103 runs. White-ball coach Mike Hesson, who had initially traveled to London alongside Director of High Performance Aqib Javed for a reception and dinner King Charles is hosting for the Pakistan squad at Clarence House Gardens on September 2, is now reportedly being asked to take charge of the Test team’s affairs as well — including a dressing-room presence for the third and final Test starting September 9 at Edgbaston.

The pattern here has precedent that makes this particular reshuffle feel less surprising than it might otherwise. Sarfaraz already survived one near-removal this year: after a 2-0 whitewash to Bangladesh in his first assignment as head coach — the first time Bangladesh had ever beaten Pakistan in a home Test series — reports emerged that former captain Younis Khan was being lined up to replace him, only for the PCB to reverse course and keep Sarfaraz in place for the West Indies and England tours. That reprieve now looks to have been temporary rather than a vote of confidence, with the England series proving to be the harder test he ultimately failed.

Hesson’s position gives this transition an unusually smooth internal logic. He already coaches Pakistan’s white-ball side, meaning a formal expansion into Test responsibilities would let the PCB consolidate coaching across all three formats under one figure — a structure Pakistan cricket has cycled toward and away from repeatedly in recent years. Hesson previously coached New Zealand to a 2015 World Cup final and eight home Test series wins between 2012 and 2018, giving him a credibility profile the PCB has visibly struggled to match with its recent run of Test coaching appointments.

That instability is itself part of the story. Sarfaraz would be, by ESPNcricinfo’s counting, at least the fourth person to hold or be linked to Pakistan’s Test head coaching role within a few years, following Jason Gillespie, Gary Kirsten and interim spells for Aqib Javed — a churn rate that mirrors Pakistan’s broader pattern of cycling through white-ball coaches too, Hesson himself being the ninth in that role within two years when he was appointed.

Whether the PCB extends Hesson’s stopgap role at Edgbaston into a formal, permanent takeover of the Test side will likely be decided in the same emergency-meeting style that’s characterized nearly every coaching decision Pakistan cricket has made this year — reactive, mid-crisis, and rarely final until the next defeat forces another reversal.