Pakistan men’s cricket selection committee made wholesale changes to the Test squad after the humiliating defeat in Multan at the hands of Ollie Pope-led England. For the second Test, captain Ben Stokes returned after recovering from hamstring injury. On the eve of the second Test, Stokes was asked about the turmoil in Pakistan cricket leading to Babar Azam, Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah missing the rest of the Test series. Stokes tried to stay away from the controversy that has embroiled Pakistan cricket but had a rather blunt reaction to it.
"Yeah, just everything on that is Pakistan cricket's issue. It has nothing to do with me," Stokes said in the pre-match press conference in Multan.
Stokes replaced Chris Woakes whereas Matthew Potts walked in to the side in place of Gus Atkinson. Stokes has not played since injuring his hamstring in the Hundred 2024 clash. He missed the Test series against Sri Lanka at home and the first Test against Pakistan.
Stokes hails Pope
In Stokes’ absence, Ollie Pope led the side and tasted defeat only once at home against Sri Lanka. The all-rounder understands how hard it is to be a stand-in captain and lauded Pope’s leadership.
"For such a young player who has got quite a lot of experience now, having that exposure to being a top-order batter but also captain will be really, really good for him in the long-term and I think he has done a great job. His winning percentage is better than mine. I think - winning three out of four Tests - he has done a great job and should be very proud of what he has achieved while I have been injured," Stokes told Sky Sports.
"I said it before when asked about this, being stand-in captain is harder than being captain because you know you are only doing it for a certain amount of games and you are trying to still push forward what the current captain is doing. Popey has been involved under my captaincy from day one so there was a lot of easy and natural ways to continue doing that, but what he also did was put his own stamp on things which were massively encouraged by myself and Baz (Brendn McCullum)," he added.
Playing XIs for second Test in Multan
Pakistan XI: Shan Masood (captain), Saim Ayub, Abdullah Shafique, Kamran Ghulam, Saud Shakeel, Mohammad Rizwan, Salman Agha, Aamer Jamal, Noman Ali, Sajid Khan, Zahid Mahmood
England XI: Ben Stokes (captain), Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith, Brydon Carse, Matthew Potts, Jack Leach, Shoaib Bashir
