Shan Masood and Babar Azam address disunity in Pakistan's dressing room; Gillespie, Kirsten join discussion

In the past year, Pakistan has faced a series of surprising defeats on the international stage. It all started with a loss to Afghanistan in the ODI World Cup, which resulted in Pakistan failing to make it to the semifinals once again. In June, they were shocked by the USA in the T20 World Cup and failed to advance to the Super Eight stage. Adding to their troubles, they suffered a humiliating 0-2 whitewash against Bangladesh at home, marking the first time in history that Bangladesh has achieved such a feat against Pakistan.

Experts and critics reckoned that Pakistan cricket's recent downfall was due to a lack of unity in the dressing room. This peaked after Shaheen Afridi was shockingly removed from T20I captaincy ahead of the World Cup to reinstate Babar as the skipper. In fact, the tension among the players even surprised white-ball coach Kristen when he took up the role.

In a report in ESPNCricinfo, PCB officials, members of the team management, and all the players broke their silence in the lack of unity in the Pakistan team during the connection camp.

"The session was about this, that we openly and candidly accept and identify [issues] and ask for a commitment from each other, demand it, on how we can improve our performances and how we work together as a team," Salman Naseer, the PCB's chief operating officer, said at a press conference in Lahore on Monday. "Our unanimous view was that we need to resolve this going forward and need to identify how we do it."

Although Naseer did not go into the details of the discussions between the players, but revealed that the tension between them and the board, over not getting NOCs for overseas leagues when away from national team duty, was also addressed. Citing workload management, the likes of Babar, Afridi, Mohammad Rizwan and Naseem Shah were all denied NOCs from playing in global T20 leagues before the start of the home season.

"Where the talk is of unity, it wasn't only about the team," Naseer acknowledged. "It was between the team and management and how we can work together to do things more successfully. These were definitely part of the discussions. We talked about planning, we talked about workload management.

"Everyone is feeling that the performances of players, and management, can be better. The idea was to sit together, identify issues and what can be better. What our vision is and how do we get there?"

While the discussions among the players and the management did not involve the recent Test series loss against Bangladesh or the upcoming red-ball series against England at home, but Kirsten, who watched the proceedings in the Champions Cup, was all praise for the depth of talent in the country.

"I've been here the last 12 days or so watching the Champions Cup and have been really encouraged at the depth of quality of players in this tournament," Kirsten said. "It's been fantastic to see. I've really enjoyed the tournament. The quality of the competition has been high. Been great to see a lot of young players showcasing what they are capable of."