Taunt over government's 'inability' to remove Mohsin Naqvi; Khawaja Asif concurs
Pakistan's heavy Test defeat to England at Leeds sparks social media calls to remove PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi; Defence Minister Khawaja Asif agrees with the criticism.
Intelligence analysis by Llama
A social media user asked why the PML-N government cannot remove PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi despite Pakistan cricket's decline. Defence Minister Khawaja Asif agreed with the criticism but corrected the user's grammar. Pakistan has now lost 17 of its last 20 Test matches.
Pakistan's cricket team is losing badly to England. A person online asked why the government won't fire the cricket boss. The Defence Minister agreed the team is doing badly, but stopped to fix the person's spelling mistake first — a small moment showing how cricket and politics are tangled together in Pakistan.
Analysis
Khawaja Asif's "laughing stock" correction
The exchange between social media user Faisal Ranjha and Defence Minister Khawaja Asif captures the unusual overlap of cricket discourse and Pakistani political messaging. Ranjha's post demanded to know why the PML-N government could not remove PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi, whom he blamed for "the destruction of Pakistan cricket" and for letting the team become a global joke. Asif's reply was notable not for any political defence of Naqvi but for his grammatical intervention: he agreed with the substance of the criticism, but insisted the correct idiom is "laughing stock," not "laughing stalk." When a serving defence minister uses his official platform to validate public criticism of an institution under his own government's control — and to do so through a vocabulary quibble — it signals how severely Pakistan's Test decline is being felt inside the political establishment.
Seventeen losses in twenty Tests
The statistical case for panic is laid out bluntly by former Pakistan captain Ramiz Raja on BBC TMS: Pakistan have lost 17 of their last 20 Test matches. The contrast with August 2016 is painful — a decade ago, Pakistan drew a four-match series 2-2 in England and rose to the top of the world Test rankings. In August 2026, the same side sits seventh in the Test rankings and last in the World Test Championship table. Michael Vaughan, the former England captain, told TMS he had "never seen them so scared" and was "genuinely concerned" after the innings-and-103-run defeat at Headingley. The same nation that historically produced some of cricket's most feared fast bowlers looked, in Vaughan's words, "lifeless" in both bowling and fielding, with a clear gap in skill and quality between the two sides.
Shaheen, Naseem and the home-pitch habit
The structural rot behind the current slump is captured in the absences. Babar Azam, the only Pakistani in the ICC's top 25 Test batters, missed the Leeds Test with a hand injury. Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah — Pakistan's two most prominent fast bowlers — are not in the Test attack, having been repeatedly used in shorter formats or sidelined by form and fitness issues. Since 2023, four of Pakistan's five Test wins have come on home soil, frequently on tailor-made turning tracks. In the 2024 home series against England, the report notes, industrial fans, heaters and wind breakers were used to prepare pitches. Ramiz Raja's diagnosis is sharp: Pakistan have built a team that can only win in specific conditions, and the fast-bowling tradition that once defined the side is being quietly de-prioritised.
Key points
- Pakistan lost the Leeds Test by an innings and 103 runs against England, prompting widespread criticism
- Social media user Faisal Ranjha asked why the PML-N government cannot remove PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi
- Defence Minister Khawaja Asif agreed with the criticism but corrected the user's English, insisting on 'laughing stock' over 'laughing stalk'
- Ramiz Raja said Pakistan have lost 17 of their last 20 Test matches and that fans are now 'disappointed'
- Babar Azam, Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah are absent from the current Test side, exposing Pakistan's fast-bowling and batting depth problems
Michael Vaughan said he hopes Pakistan can show some improvement in the remaining Tests of the series, and the team still has a path to draw or win matches at other English grounds where conditions differ from Headingley. The presence of players like Babar Azam, Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah in the wider squad offers the chance to reset the side once fitness and selection allow.
Ramiz Raja warned that the fans, "the pillar," have already turned, and a team that loses 17 of 20 Tests risks losing the next generation of supporters entirely. With Pakistan last in the World Test Championship table and fast-bowling depth eroded by overuse in shorter formats, the structural decline could deepen before any visible turnaround.
