Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) director of high performance Aqib Javed has held captain Babar Azam and head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed responsible for what he described as poor selection decisions during the ongoing Test tour of England.

Pakistan’s red-ball set-up underwent a major overhaul on Monday after the team suffered defeats in the first two Tests of the three-match series, with seven players and two members of the coaching staff released ahead of the final Test at Edgbaston.

Mohammad Rizwan, Imam-ul-Haq, Salman Ali Agha, Ali Usman, Aamer Jamal, Muhammad Awais Zafar and Khurram Shahzad have been sent back to Pakistan, while Saim Ayub, Abdullah Fazal, Mohammad Imran Jr, Saad Baig, Mohammad Imran Randhawa and Razaullah have been brought into the squad.

Sarfaraz and bowling coach Umar Gul have also been removed from their respective roles. White-ball head coach Mike Hesson has taken charge of the Test side for the remainder of the series, with Ashley Noffke appointed as the new bowling coach.

Aqib defended the sweeping changes and said the PCB had been left with little choice after Pakistan failed to show meaningful competitiveness in either of the opening two Tests.

“Two Test matches have come and gone, and the team has not competed in any way,” Aqib said.

He particularly questioned the failure to select a pace-bowling all-rounder and fast bowler Ubaid Shah, despite both options being available to the management.

“There’s one Test still to go. They [the management] had a pace all-rounder available, a second wicketkeeper, a fast bowler in Ubaid Shah. But those decisions were not being made,” he said.

Aqib revealed that he had spoken to Babar and Sarfaraz about including Ubaid, arguing that Pakistan’s bowling attack needed a genuine pace option rather than relying on several bowlers with similar speeds.

“I spoke to the captain [Babar Azam] and coach and asked them to put Ubaid in because the other bowlers [Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Ali and Khurram Shahzad] are all similarly paced,” he added.

According to Aqib Javed, Pakistan’s top seven also lacked a genuine all-round option, which further affected the balance of the XI.

Follow us on our Official WhatsApp channel

“No batter in our top seven bowls. We should have included an all-rounder, but most importantly, get in Ubaid Shah, who bowls close to 140kph. One fast bowler changes the composition of your attack,” he said.

Aqib also questioned the decision to leave out wicketkeeper-batter Ghazi Ghori while continuing with Mohammad Rizwan, although he acknowledged that Salman was struggling for form.

“I understand dropping [Salman] Agha, who’s out of form, but you should have played Ghazi Ghori instead of [Mohammad] Rizwan [as the wicketkeeper]. Someone had to take action,” Aqib said.

The PCB official said the changes were also intended to send a strong message to the players being retained and recalled, insisting that performances on major overseas tours had to meet a higher standard.

“The message we’re sending to the recalled players is that you have to raise your game on important tours and compete, and we should be able to see some effort,” he said.

Aqib further placed responsibility on the captain, head coach and management once a squad begins a tour, while explaining that the selection committee has limited influence over the match-to-match combination.

“When we select the team as coach or captain and make a squad, we’re responsible for that squad. But once they go on tour, we [selection committee] cannot do anything about the match-to-match combination,” he said.

He stressed that the players who initially made the squad had done enough to earn selection, but argued that the management needed to respond when performances and results deteriorated.

“No one doubted these players’ performances when selected. But when players are completely out of form, and you’re not competing at all, then we needed to make a decision,” Aqib said.

“When you’re not making the right decisions despite getting messages conveyed to you to play the right combination [that’s a problem]. Your captain, head coach and management have some responsibilities.”

READ: Aqib Javed slams Imam-ul-Haq, says ‘action’ will be taken