Pakistan’s results have remained poor, highlighted by a group stage exit at the T20 World Cup last year in which they lost to the USA. That has prompted a wholesale change in the squad, with a number of new faces and, significantly, the absence of a few older ones.

Chief among them are Rizwan and Babar, whose batting at the top of the order has widely been seen to be a root cause for Pakistan’s outdated, risk-averse batting approach. While the door has not been permanently shut on them in the format, it is clear they have been dropped, not rested.

“It’s an honour for me and also a challenge,” Agha said at a press conference in Lahore. “We’ve brought a few youngsters into the team who have been playing the brand of cricket in domestic cricket that we want to play in the national side going forward.

“We have to focus on our intent and approach. We have to improve that. In modern day cricket these things are important. This is a young team and we want to play fearless cricket. That is high-risk cricket, which is a requirement in modern cricket. There will be failures with that approach, but we have to support our players.”

The PCB said they have made Agha captain with an eye on the Asia Cup (in T20 format) later this year and the World Cup in India and Sri Lanka next year. They have recalled Shadab Khan as vice-captain ostensibly for this project, a player in tune with this brand of cricket.

Aaqib, who is also the selection head, remains in those positions for the series of five T20Is and three ODIs against New Zealand, though there has been speculation about a new coach. Asked specifically about the fates of Babar and Rizwan, he linked their dropping clearly to the style of play Pakistan are hoping to adopt.

“You can’t rule anyone out forever but for the moment we feel that we need to bring in newer, younger players and change the style of cricket we are playing. Many teams have separated their T20 sides from the others, up to 80-90% [of the personnel] different.”

Afridi and Haris Rauf missing from the ODI squad add to the sense of big-name axings, and Aaqib was clear that they would have to go back to domestic cricket to improve their games.

“Top players like Babar, Shaheen, Riz, they travel so much they don’t have time to play their domestic cricket,” he said. “Now they have time to play domestic cricket. Until you play four-day cricket you will not improve in Tests or ODIs. It cannot be that you play 70% T20 cricket all year and then suddenly you play Tests or ODIs.

“The players have to think about this themselves because ultimately they are responsible for their own game. You can’t force players… don’t players have a responsibility themselves to think about their game and where it is going? That I should sacrifice and take a break from T20 and play four-day or List A so that I can get my form back?”

Both Agha and Aaqib spoke of developing a pool of 20-25 players for Pakistan to work with over the next 18 months or so. Both also stressed that backing them through failures would be just as important.

Aaqib acknowledged the instability that has beset Pakistan cricket over the last couple of years, of which he is, for now, a beneficiary.

“We have changed nearly 16 coaches and 26 selectors in the last two years or so,” he said. “You put that formula on any team in the world, I think they will also be in the same situation. Until you get consistency right from the top down to the bottom, from the chairman down, then your team will not progress.”