Hesson's Youth Push: Rizwan, Imam Face Contract Axe

Pakistan's tri-series trophy has barely stopped gleaming, and already the next big debate has begun: who deserves a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) central contract for 2026-27, and who does not. Reports emerging after Saturday's final in Lahore suggest head coach Mike Hesson wants a decisive changing of the guard, with the youngsters who won the tri-series rewarded and two of the most familiar senior names, Mohammad Rizwan and Imam-ul-Haq, set to miss out altogether.

Let us be clear from the start: the PCB has not yet announced its new central contract list. What has been reported, via NDTV and carried by CricketAddictor on November 1, is Hesson's recommendation and the direction of travel inside the board. But the timing is no accident. The old contracts expired on July 31, the board deliberately waited until after the home tri-series against England and Sri Lanka to judge form, and now, with a two-Test series against Sri Lanka starting in Rawalpindi on November 9, the decisions can no longer be put off.

Why now? The tri-series changed the argument

For months, the central contract debate was theoretical. The tri-series made it concrete. Pakistan lost just one match in the tournament, recovered from being bowled out for 110 by Sri Lanka in Lahore on October 27, and then chased down 326 in the final on October 31 to win the title by three wickets with nine balls to spare.

The final itself told the story of a changing team. Fakhar Zaman, himself fighting for his place after scoring only 31 runs in the previous four games, played one of his great innings, 127 off 99 balls. Saad Baig made 74. Arafat Minhas smashed 61 off 31 balls. Hasan Nawaz finished the job unbeaten, and Shaheen Shah Afridi hit the winning six. It was, in the most literal sense, a young team winning a final the old way: by backing its talent under pressure.

That is the evidence Hesson is said to be leaning on. According to the report, the head coach, who now oversees the side in all formats, believes the players who showed potential and brought value to the dressing room during the tri-series should be rewarded with good central contracts, not just warm words. The message, in short, is that performance in the biggest home series of the year should count for more than seniority or past reputation.

The youngsters reportedly in line

The list of names reportedly put forward by Hesson reads like a roll call of Pakistan's next generation. It includes Arafat Minhas, the tri-series Player of the Series, wicketkeeper-batter Saad Baig, Hasan Nawaz, Sufiyan Muqeem, Maaz Sadaqat, Akif Javed, Ali Raza, Ahsan Daniyal, Razaullah, Azan Avais, Imran Randhawa, Abdullah Fazal and Ghazi Ghori.

Not every name on that list played a starring role in the tri-series final, and that is the point. Central contracts are not a reward for one innings. They are a statement of intent about the next twelve months, including the 2027 ODI World Cup cycle. Minhas and Baig have already shown they can handle a final. Muqeem and Sadaqat were in and around the squad during the tournament. Others have impressed in domestic cricket, which Hesson and the selectors have also been monitoring while the international season unfolded.

There is also a structural change behind the names. The PCB is moving away from the old seniority-based system towards format-specific contracts, with separate categories for Test cricket, T20 cricket and white-ball cricket. That matters because a player can be vital in one format and surplus in another, and the new system is designed to reflect that rather than handing out one-size-fits-all deals. Some contracts, the reports say, will be red-ball only or white-ball only.

It is also worth noting what has been reported about the captains. Babar Azam, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Sahibzada Farhan, the leaders across the three formats, are set to retain their contracts. Whatever else changes, the leadership core is not being dismantled. This is a refresh around the edges and through the middle order, not a revolution at the very top.

Rizwan and Imam: why the axe is being talked about

The other side of the story is harder, and more sensitive. According to the same report, Mohammad Rizwan and Imam-ul-Haq will not be given central contracts this time. The reasons given are form and selection: both have been in and out of the team, neither is in his best ODI form, and both have been dropped from the ODI and T20I squads at various points.

That will sting for two players who have carried enormous workloads for Pakistan over the years. Rizwan, in particular, has been one of the most durable and productive players of his generation, and Imam has a long record as an ODI opener. But central contracts are forward-looking documents. If a player is not in the selectors' plans for the formats that matter most over the next year, a retainer becomes difficult to justify, however distinguished the past.

Context matters here too. Both men were among the seven players removed from the Test squad midway through the tour of England earlier in 2026, a shake-up that also saw head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed replaced by Hesson and bowling coach Umar Gul replaced by Ashley Noffke. Salman Ali Agha, speaking in Lahore on the eve of the tri-series final, said publicly that dropping players midway through a series was not a good thing and that he hoped it would not happen again. The contract reports suggest the board's direction has not softened since then, even if the method is now a planned annual list rather than a mid-series cull.

None of this means Rizwan or Imam are finished as international cricketers. Losing a central contract is not the same as being banned from selection, and players have returned from exactly this position before. But it would be a clear signal: the door is not closed, but the burden of proof has shifted. Domestic runs, fitness and form would have to force a recall, rather than a contract guaranteeing a place in the conversation.

The money and freedom question

There is another layer to the contract talks that fans rarely see but players feel every day: overseas leagues. Reports from October indicated that several Pakistan players were keen on Category C-style deals that would give them more freedom to play in franchise leagues without needing a PCB no-objection certificate for every tournament, while remaining available for national selection.

The board, for its part, has been planning stricter no-objection rules for Test specialists, and the proposed format-based system is partly an attempt to square that circle. A white-ball specialist with a lighter international calendar is a different commercial case from a Test regular the board wants available all year. How the final list balances retainers, match fees and league freedom will shape not just who signs, but how happy they are when they do.

The PCB is also reported to have budgeted around Rs1.1 billion for retainers and match fees, and the new deals, whenever they are announced, are expected to be backdated to August 1, covering the period since the old contracts expired. That backdating matters: it means the delay has cost players certainty, but not necessarily money, provided the final list includes them.

What happens next: the Sri Lanka Tests

The immediate focus now shifts to red-ball cricket, and the timing could hardly be more testing for everyone involved. Sri Lanka arrive for a three-day warm-up match at the Islamabad Club from November 4 to 6, before the first Test at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium from November 9 to 13 and the second Test at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore, from November 17 to 21. Both matches carry ICC World Test Championship points.

Pakistan sit ninth and last in the current World Test Championship table on 4.63 per cent, with two wins from nine Tests. Sri Lanka are seventh on 33.33 per cent. Neither side can reach the final, but both have plenty to play for: Pakistan need to prove the tri-series momentum can survive a change of format, and Sri Lanka, under new Test captain Kusal Mendis, will fancy their chances against a side still rebuilding its red-ball identity.

Sri Lanka's preparations have already been hit by the loss of opener Pathum Nissanka, ruled out of the series after failing to recover from the left hamstring injury he suffered on Sri Lanka's white-ball tour of England in September. Lahiru Udara, who also replaced Nissanka in the ODI tri-series squad, has been named as his replacement. Nissanka had also missed Sri Lanka's home series against India in August with a wrist injury, so this is another frustrating delay to his Test comeback.

For Pakistan, the Tests are also the last live audition before the contracts are finalised, if the board follows the pattern suggested in October reporting that the announcement could slip until after the Tests. A young player who performs in Rawalpindi or Lahore strengthens his case enormously. A senior player fighting for his future gets one more stage. That is why the next three weeks matter far beyond the two Test results.

What would a good contract list look like?

If Hesson gets his way, the list should do three things. First, it should reward the tri-series winners properly, not with token deals but with contracts that reflect their role in a trophy-winning side. Second, it should be honest about format: a T20 specialist should not be paid as a Test regular, and a Test bowler should not be judged on white-ball numbers. Third, it should leave a clear route back for Rizwan, Imam and any other senior player who proves form and fitness in domestic cricket.

Pakistani fans have seen contract lists become battlegrounds before, and they will rightly judge this one on whether it helps the team win. The tri-series final showed what this young core can do when trusted. The Tests against Sri Lanka will show whether that trust extends to the longest format. And the contract list, when it finally lands, will show whether the PCB is serious about building around youth, or whether the talk of a revolution was just talk.

Until the board publishes the list, everything here remains a report, not a fact. But the direction is unmistakable, and it is the biggest Pakistan cricket story of the week: after years of seniority deciding who gets paid, performance is finally being given the loudest voice in the room.

Sources: CricketAddictor/NDTV report on PCB central contracts (November 1, 2026); Press Trust of India reporting on the PCB's format-based contract plans (October 2026); Cricbuzz, A Sports, Geo Super and CricTracker on Pathum Nissanka's withdrawal and the Sri Lanka Test squad; Pakera/ICC World Test Championship points table (October 31, 2026). Images are illustrative stadium photographs from Wikimedia Commons, credited in the captions, not photographs from the contract discussions or the tri-series final.

Photo credits: Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium 2025, English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Gaddafi Stadium during PSL 2026, Wikimedia Commons, CC0.