Former Pakistan national cricket team batsman Basit Ali has made a bold claim by saying that Pakistan’s current white-ball coach Gary Kirsten will be sacked by the PCB after the conclusion of the 2025 Champions Trophy.

Gary Kirsten was appointed as the white-ball head coach of the Pakistan National Cricket Team on 28 April 2024. He replaced Azhar Mahmood, who had been acting as the interim head coach during the series against New Zealand prior to Kirsten’s appointment. Along with Gary Kirsten, Jason Gillespie joined Pakistan as the red-ball head coach.

Expectations were very high for the Pakistan team after Kirsten, who won the 2011 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup as a coach, joined the team. However, so far, the team has seen only failures under him. The Men in Green have been losing matches consistently across all formats and had a terrible performance in the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.

Gary Kirsten’s next big task is the 2025 Champions Trophy, which will be held in Pakistan. The home team will be under enormous pressure to perform well in front of their home crowd and failure in the competition could lead to a major shake-up of the system.

Meanwhile, Basit Ali has claimed that the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy will be Kirsten’s last assignment with the Pakistan team as after that, he will be sacked. Ali added that finishing in the top four in the Champions Trophy would be a great achievement for Babar Azam & Co.

“Congratulations to Gary Kirsten. He will be in charge of the team till the Champions Trophy. However, he will be sacked after the Champions Trophy. What I am saying now is that it will be tata, goodbye to him. It will be a great achievement for Pakistan to reach the top four. They have also entered into the politics of Pakistani cricket. They will not succeed,” Ali said in a video on YouTube.

I think we all want a successful team – Gary Kirsten

Recently, the Pakistan Cricket Board organised a high-profile meeting dubbed as the ‘connection camp’ where several officials were present and discussed the team’s roadmap.

Gary Kirsten, who also participated in the meeting, spoke to reporters on Monday and said that they want Pakistan to get back on track, and that will happen soon. He explained:

“I think we all want a successful team, don’t we? We want the team to perform well in whatever they do. And there’s no reason why that can’t be the case. It’s a very talented cricket team across all formats, but there are processes that need to be put in place.

“I think that’s what we’re focusing on. We want to know that we have a solid system in the country and that there’s competition for places, and that our team is united in its strategy to compete against the best teams in the world.”

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