Rizwan & Aqib are very close, this is well known and they’ve publicised their relationship.
Rizwan planted the seed of overthrowing the coach in Aqib’s head and gave him his support. When the Kusrah Kliq were not happy with Gillespie and Kirsten, they plotted against them.
Aqib was merely their instrument who can be made a scapegoat, and we are seeing that happen now.
After Pakistan lost to Bangladesh, which obviously was a sackable offence, the vultures pounced. Aqib right or wrong took full advantage off the opportunity, Rizwan famously coined ‘AqibBalls’ as they prepared spinning pitches to beat England. Aqib does not come to power without the seniors support and we saw how a smear campaign had been initiated to ostracise the foreigners from their alleged inability to communicate or the number of days they were available to work etc
Now Kirsten was very evidently a Rizwan job, firstly, Kirsten made it clear he didn’t really want to build the team around him and Babar, he clearly communicated how he had never seen such a divided and toxic environment like the one he experienced during the World T20. He wanted to build the team around young aggressive players and his vision was in line with modern demands in limited overs. As I mentioned before, the smear campaign was already in full swing after the WC humiliation and Kirsten was basically cornered. Gillespie is getting slightly confused due to the timing of events, because they applied more pressure on Kirsten after Aqib came into power; but the Kirsten dismissal was initiated by Rizwan, who’d only accept the captaincy if he was given certain guarantees and complete selection powers.
Whether it was Aqib, Gillespie or Kirsten; the common factor here is the influence Babar & Rizwan have wielded to secure their positions in the team, at the expense of Pakistan consistently performing poorly in tournaments.
