Pakistan’s results have remained poor, highlighted by a group output at the T20 World Championship last year when they lost to the United States. It has led to a wholesale change in the troop, with a number of new faces and markedly the absence of a few elderly.

Head among them is Rizwan and Babar, whose batting at the top of the order is largely seen to be a root cause of Pakistan’s outdated, risky batting approach. While the door has not been permanently closed on them in the format, it is clear that they have been dropped, not rested.

“It’s an honor for me and also a challenge,” Agha said at a press conference in Lahore. “We have brought a couple of young people into the team who have played branded cricket in domestic cricket, which we will play in the national side in the future.

“We have to focus on our intention and approach. We have to improve it. In modern cricket, these things are important. This is a young team and we will play fearless cricket. It is cricket at high risk, which is a requirement in modern cricket. There will be mistakes with that approach, but we have to support our players.”

PCB said they have made AGHA captain with an eye on the Asia Cup (in T20 format) later in the year and the World Cup in India and Sri Lanka next year. They have remembered Shadab Khan as a vice captain apparently for this project, a player in accordance with this brand cricket.

AAQIB, which is also the selection head, remains in these positions for the series with five T20i’s and three ODDs against New Zealand, although there has been speculation about a new coach. Specifically asked about the fate of Babar and Rizwan, he clearly linked their fall to the style of the game that Pakistan hopes to adopt.

“You can’t exclude anyone forever, but at the moment we feel we have to bring in newer, younger players in and change the cricket style we play. Many teams have separated their T20 pages from the others, up to 80-90% [of the personnel] different.”

Afridi and Haris Rauf, missing in the Odi troop, adds the feeling of large name augs, and Aaqib was aware that they had to return to domestic cricket to improve their games.

“Top players like Babar, Shaheen, Riz, they travel so much that they don’t have time to play their domestic cricket,” he said. “Now they have time to play domestic cricket. Until you play four-day cricket, you won’t improve in tests or ODDs. You can’t be playing 70% T20 cricket all year and suddenly you play test or ODDs.

“The players have to think about this themselves because they are ultimately responsible for their own game. You can’t force players … Don’t players even have a responsibility to think of their games and where it goes? That I have to sacrifice and take a break from T20 and play four-day or list A so I can get my shape back?”

Both Agha and Aaqib talked about developing a pool of 20-25 players for Pakistan to work with over the next 18 months or so. Both also emphasized that it would be just as important to support them through failures.

AAQIB recognized the instability that has occupied Pakistan -Cricket for the past few years, of which he is now a recipient.

“We have changed almost 16 coaches and 26 voters for the past two years or so,” he said. “You put that formula on any team in the world, I think they will be in the same situation too. Until you get consistency right from top and bottom, from the chairman down, your team will not move on.”