Jason Gillespie Critiques Aaqib Javed Over Pakistan's Test Chaos

Jason Gillespie has never been afraid of a hard length or a hard truth. This week, Pakistan’s former head coach delivered both – only this time, the target wasn’t an opposition top order, but the Pakistan Cricket Board’s selection boss, Aaqib Javed.

In the wake of Pakistan’s brutal defeats to England at Headingley and Lord’s, the PCB detonated its Test set-up mid-series. Head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed gone. Bowling coach Umar Gul gone. Seven players sent home. A brand-new coaching team flown in for the third Test in Birmingham on September 9.

From Adelaide, Gillespie watched it unfold with something close to disbelief.

“I feel for the players, this is these guys livelihoods,” he told The Australian. From his vantage point, the mood around the side has curdled. “From the outside it looks like they are playing with fear.”

He had reason to care. Gillespie spent eight months in charge of Pakistan in 2024 and oversaw a 2-1 Test series win over England. He knows what a settled, confident Pakistan can look like. What he sees now, he suggested, is the opposite.

The most striking example, in his eyes, is Salman Ali Agha. One week, he is leading Pakistan in the first Test against England. By the second, he is out of the XI. Before the third, he is on a flight home.

“Salman Ali Agha goes from captaining the team in the first Test against England to out of the team for the second Test and on the plane home before the third Test,” Gillespie said. “How does that work?”

For him, the answer sits squarely with the man running selection.

“It’s pretty clear they don’t have a selection strategy at all, particularly under Aaqib Javed,” Gillespie said. “They change their mind like they change their pants -- daily.”

The words sting because they land on an old, familiar bruise in Pakistan cricket: volatility. Selection by impulse, not plan. Careers and confidence tossed around as the board scrambles for quick fixes.

The pressure finally told after England handed Pakistan an innings-and-103-run defeat at Headingley, then a 194-run loss at Lord’s to seal the three-match series 2-0 with a Test to spare. The PCB’s response was sweeping.

Out went Sarfaraz and Gul. In came Mike Hesson and Ashley Noffke to take charge for the final Test at Edgbaston. The board also recalled a raft of players: wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan, opener Imam-ul-Haq, Salman Ali Agha, spinner Ali Usman, seamer Khurram Shahzad, all-rounder Aamir Jamal and batter Awais Zafar.

The churn might have been controversial enough on its own. The way it was handled took it to another level.

Reports this week revealed that several players only learned they had been dropped when family and friends forwarded them the PCB’s statement from social media. No phone call. No meeting. No explanation from the captain, coach or chief selector.

Gillespie was scathing.

“There is definitely no communication between Aaqib Javed, who is meant to be chairman of selectors, and the players,” he said. “The players who were sacked heard it through family and friends and the media they had been sacked. How disrespectful is that?”

For a man who has spent time in that dressing room, the idea that players discovered their fate via WhatsApp forwards and news alerts cuts deep. It speaks, he argues, to a breakdown not just in selection policy, but in basic professional standards.

The tension between Gillespie and Aaqib has been simmering for weeks. Javed recently tried to shift blame for Pakistan’s current malaise onto Gillespie and former white-ball coach Gary Kirsten, suggesting the problems began on their watch.

Gillespie did not let that pass.

“Aaqib Javed came out recently and blamed (former Pakistan white-ball coach) Gary Kirsten and myself for everything that is going on,” he said. “Aaqib has been chairman of selectors for the past two years. We haven’t even been there. Somehow he claims it is our fault. Make sense out of that. I think Javed needs to look at himself in the mirror.”

It was a direct, personal rebuke – rare in the usually guarded world of international coaching – and it laid bare just how fractured Pakistan’s cricket structure looks from the outside.

As England head to Birmingham with the series already in the bag, Pakistan arrive with a new coaching team, a reshuffled squad and a storm of criticism swirling around their selection chief. The scoreboard shows 2-0 to England. The bigger question is what the damage will read for Pakistan by the time this chaotic campaign finally ends.