--- title: "Babar Azam says surprised by PCB's decision to sack Sarfraz and send players home" description: "Most outlets reported that Babar Azam was surprised by the Pakistan Cricket Board’s decision to sack Sarfraz Ahmed and send seven players home after the defeat against England. Both excerpts led with Azam’s admission that he was not consulted about the move and described it as unexpected. The framing was largely consistent, with no notable differences in emphasis or wording between the two outlets." url: https://harzaviya.com/stories/7380-pakistan-squad-cull-came-as-a-surprise-to-skipper-babar-azam site: HarZaviya language: en --- # Babar Azam says surprised by PCB's decision to sack Sarfraz and send players home sports · updated 9 Sep 2026, 8:31 AM PKT · 8–9 Sep 2026 · 2 articles from 2 outlets **HarZaviya summary** — how 2 outlets covered this, generated automatically from their headlines and excerpts: > Most outlets reported that Babar Azam was surprised by the Pakistan Cricket Board’s decision to sack Sarfraz Ahmed and send seven players home after the defeat against England. Both excerpts led with Azam’s admission that he was not consulted about the move and described it as unexpected. The framing was largely consistent, with no notable differences in emphasis or wording between the two outlets. ## Same story from 2 outlets Each outlet's own headline, most recent first — read any at its source. - **Daily Times** — [Pakistan squad cull came as a surprise to skipper Babar Azam](https://dailytimes.com.pk/1550269/pakistan-squad-cull-came-as-a-surprise-to-skipper-babar-azam/) · 9 Sep 2026, 8:31 AM PKT > Pakistan captain Babar Azam was not consulted about the decision to tear up his squad ahead of this week’s final Test against England, admitting the drastic cull was “news to me”. Heavy defeats at Headingley and Lord’s were met with sweeping changes by the Pakistan Cricket Board, who reacted by sending seven players home as […] - **Dawn** — [Babar says was surprised by PCB’s decision to sack Sarfraz, send seven players home](https://www.dawn.com/news/2028393/babar-says-was-surprised-by-pcbs-decision-to-sack-sarfraz-send-seven-players-home) · 8 Sep 2026, 7:42 PM PKT · 82% identical wording to the newest filing > The Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) decision to sack the national team’s head coach and send seven players back home following the defeat against England at Lord’s last week came as a surprise to captain Babar Azam, he revealed on Tuesday. The 194-run drubbing — which sealed the three-match series for the hosts — was followed by Sarfraz Ahmed’s removal as Pakistan’s head coach and Umar Gul’s dis... ## Part of a bigger story Other stories whose coverage resembles this one, nearest first. "% related" compares whole stories, not single articles — see [what the percentages mean](https://harzaviya.com/methodology). - [Babar Azam reacts to recent changes in Pakistan Test squad](https://harzaviya.com/stories/7292-babar-azam-accepts-pcb-changes-says-new-test-players-have) · 8 Sep 2026 · 5 outlets · 82% related - [Pakistan Cricket Board overhauls Test squad and coaching staff after two losses to England](https://harzaviya.com/stories/5713-pcb-releases-seven-players-from-pakistan-test-squa) · 1 Sep 2026 · 12 outlets · 2 developments · 79% related - [Salman Agha to lead Pakistan in first Test against England as Babar Azam is ruled out](https://harzaviya.com/stories/3266-pakistan-captain-babar-in-injury-scare-ahead-of-england) · 19 Aug 2026 · 12 outlets · 6 developments · 70% related 2 articles from 2 outlets, 8–9 Sep 2026. Headlines and links belong to their outlets — HarZaviya links out and never copies article text. --- HarZaviya compares how Pakistani outlets cover the same story. It stores and shows each outlet's headline and a short excerpt, and links out — it never copies article text, and every headline belongs to the outlet that wrote it. It takes no stance on any outlet. Pages: [Top stories](https://harzaviya.com/) · [Latest headlines](https://harzaviya.com/feed) · [Archive](https://harzaviya.com/archive) · [Why](https://harzaviya.com/why) · [Sources](https://harzaviya.com/sources) · [Methodology](https://harzaviya.com/methodology) · [About](https://harzaviya.com/about) · [About the bot](https://harzaviya.com/about-bot) Trackers: [Gold prices](https://harzaviya.com/gold-prices) · [Fuel prices](https://harzaviya.com/fuel-prices) · [Stock exchange](https://harzaviya.com/stock-exchange) Any page on this site is available as markdown: send `Accept: text/markdown`, or add `.md` to the path.