Misbah-ul-Haq resigns as PCB selector amid Test squad shake-up

The day after the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) made extensive changes to the Test squad and team management midway through the current tour of England, Misbah-ul-Haq offered to resign from the Pakistan men's national selection committee.

It has learned that Misbah has decided to quit his position as a batting consultant at the National Cricket Academy in Lahore, but the PCB has not yet accepted his resignation.

The PCB released Sarfaraz Ahmed and Umar Gul as head coach and bowling coach ahead of the third Test at Edgbaston on September 9 after going 2-0 down in the three-match series at Lord's by 194 runs.

The seven players who were let go were Mohammad Rizwan, Imam-ul-Haq, Salman Agha, Ali Usman, Aamer Jamal, Awais Zafar, and Khurram Shahzad. Along with Saim Ayub and Abdullah Fazal, five uncapped players—Razaullah, Arafat Minhas, Mohammad Imran Jnr., Saad Baig, and Mohammad Imran Randhawa—will join the Test squad. Mike Hesson and Ashley Noffke - the head coach and bowling coach of the white-ball set-up - have joined the Test coaching staff.

Misbah has held a variety of positions within the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) since he left as Pakistan's most successful Test captain in 2017. In 2019, he was given the dual responsibilities of head coach and chief selector. He held both positions until October 2020, when he resigned as chief selector to concentrate solely on head coaching duties, which he ultimately left the following year.

He continued to be involved with the PCB after being recruited as an advisor two years later by Zaka Ashraf, the chief of the ad-hoc management committee at the time. After the current management took over in 2024, he was named one of five mentors for the now-defunct men's Champions Cup. He also mentored women's teams in domestic competitions. He was the coach of the Pakistan Gold side which won the 50-over National Champions Cup in Multan last month under Shaheen Afridi's captaincy.

Misbah was made part of the four-member selection committee which includes Aaqib Javed, Sarfaraz Ahmed, and Asad Shafiq in March this year and had also been on a 180-days-a-year contract with the PCB as a batting consultant.