Pakistan’s selection circus: New Zealand tour edition

Pakistan’s New Zealand squad is a rollercoaster—surprise captain, shock omissions, and classic selection chaos.

Pakistan cricket never fails to surprise – or rather, shock – its fans. The latest squad announcement for the upcoming tour of New Zealand is no exception.

In true Pakistani style, it’s filled with eyebrow-raising omissions, a new captain out of the blue, and a general vibe of “here we go again!”

You're not wrong if you feel like you’ve seen this drama before. Grab some popcorn as we dive into the selection circus, rife with inconsistencies, leadership musical chairs, and planning that seems to have gone on vacation.

Captaincy carousel: Musical chairs at its finest

It’s getting hard to keep track of who’s in charge of Pakistan’s cricket team – the captaincy changes so often it could make a carousel dizzy.

One month, a star like Babar Azam is at the helm; the next, he’s stepping aside again.

In fact, Babar resigned as Pakistan’s white-ball captain not once, but twice in the span of 11 months, citing workload and form. And just when you thought he might reclaim the throne, the PCB hands the reins to someone new.

The latest twist? Pakistan has “shuffled the deck once more,” dropping their T20 captain Muhammad Rizwan for the New Zealand T20Is, and handing the captaincy to Rizwan’s deputy, Salman Agha.

Yes, a relatively fresh face is now leading the squad. It’s like a Game of Thrones episode, but with cricket caps instead of crowns. With the captaincy changing hands so often, one wonders if the team bus has a “Captain on Duty” sign they flip before each match.

Selection shenanigans: Consistency takes a holiday

If the captaincy chaos wasn’t enough, the selection decisions for the New Zealand tour squads have added an extra layer of absurdity. In a move that can only be described as bold (or maybe just baffling), Pakistan’s selectors dropped two of their best batters – Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan – from the T20I squad.

These are not just any players; one is your former captain and world-class batsman, the other was literally the current T20I captain until five minutes ago. Dropping them both in one go is like a chef tossing out his prime ingredients and trying to cook a gourmet meal with leftovers.

To make things spicier, star pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi has been left out of the ODI squad for the tour. Who needs your ace fast bowler in tough New Zealand conditions, right? In their place, we have a mix of promising youngsters and surprise picks.

The new T20 skipper, Salman Agha, was himself a surprise choice – a player who, until recently, wasn’t even in the T20I setup, now entrusted with leading the side.

Along with him, the squad features a 22-year-old rookie keeper (Hasan Nawaz) who’s played just 21 T20 games, and a 27-year-old big-hitter (Abdul Samad) who hasn’t played a single PSL match yet.

It seems the selection committee went on a wild adventure, picking names out of a hat or perhaps scrolling random stats on CricInfo at 2 AM. Fans are left scratching their heads at these U-turns. One series, we’re told experience is key; the next, it’s all about youth; then suddenly, experience is back in vogue—it’s a never-ending cycle of mixed signals.

This habit of pick-and-drop isn’t doing anyone any favors. Players unsure of their place play with jittery minds, and those waiting in the wings never know when a random call-up might come (or a random axe might fall).

Lack of vision: Planning? What planning?

By now, it’s clear that underlying Pakistan’s selection antics is a deeper issue: an overall lack of long-term planning and clear vision. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) often seems to be operating on a week-to-week basis, putting out fires rather than building a sustainable structure.

One damning opinion piece recently described the PCB as an institution that has “long abandoned meritocracy in favor of political appointments, nepotism, and a culture of impunity,” where decisions are based more on personal patronage than cricketing sense. Harsh words, but the evidence isn’t hard to find. The board’s top ranks have been a revolving door, with each incoming regime undoing the last regime’s work.

It’s little surprise, then, that there’s no consistent cricketing vision – how do you plan for the future when the people in charge might not last the season? Frequent administrative shake-ups have directly impacted cricket on the ground. PCB chairmen come and go, bringing in their own set of loyalists and ideas, only to be replaced before those ideas can bear fruit. One chairman prefers a youth policy; the next one brings back the seniors; a third wants all power to the coach; a fourth hands it to the captain – it’s endless confusion.

Long-term planning in Pakistan cricket often feels like an afterthought. Good teams in world cricket identify a core group, give them defined roles, and stick with them through ups and downs. In Pakistan’s case, the selection strategy is more reactive – almost like an impulse buy at a store.

The Champions Trophy 2025 debacle was a textbook example of this scattergun approach. Pakistan crashed out in the first round – a “disaster waiting to happen” given the lack of preparedness and direction.

Instead of learning from the warning signs, the response was predictably chaotic: sack the captain, blame a few players, and make wholesale changes with no clear plan, as if hitting the reset button will magically fix deep-rooted issues.

Embrace the chaos or fix it?

All of this paints a picture of a cricket board and team stuck in a loop of chaos. It’s engaging for sure – like a reality show for cricket fans – but it’s also infuriating. The inconsistency is perhaps the only thing consistent about Pakistan cricket in recent times.

The tragedy (or comedy, depending on your view) is that Pakistan has immense talent at its disposal. The players have skill and flair in abundance; what they desperately need is stability and a sense of direction.

Instead of treating the team like a laboratory for endless experiments, the powers that be might consider sticking to a strategy for longer than a few games. Continuity doesn’t guarantee success, but constant chopping and changing almost certainly guarantees failure.

For now, as Pakistan heads to New Zealand, fans can only hope that perhaps some of these gambles pay off. Who knows – in the wacky world of Pakistan cricket, a thrown-together side led by a newbie captain might just stun us all. It’s happened before! But even if a miracle series win occurs, it shouldn’t excuse the haphazard decision-making. Until a proper plan is in place, every success will feel accidental and every failure will feel inevitable.

At the end of the day, Pakistan cricket’s followers have two choices: embrace the chaos and enjoy the unpredictable ride, or demand better with a sarcastic smile and a raised eyebrow. Maybe it’s possible to do both.

After all, surviving as a Pakistan cricket fan requires a sense of humor. So here’s to the next episode of this never-ending saga – may it be entertaining, if nothing else, and fingers crossed that someone, somewhere in the PCB is taking notes on how not to run a cricket team. Until then, enjoy the controversy, folks, because the cricket certainly isn’t boring!