England have announced their playing XI for the second Test of the three-Test series against Pakistan at Multan Cricket Stadium starting October 15. Captain Ben Stokes who missed the first Test returned to the side for the second match.
England made two changes to the winning combination. While Stokes replaced Woakes, Matthew Potts replaced Gus Atkinson. In the first Test, both Woakes and Atkinson dismissed an out-of-form Babar Azam in first and second innings respectively.
Stokes is returning to action after a hamstring injury during the Hundred 2024 ruled him out of home Test series against Sri Lanka and the first Test against Pakistan.
Stokes’ numbers on Pakistan soil
The last time England toured Pakistan, he led the team to a 3-0 win. He scored 173 runs from six innings at an average of 36.40 and did not score a single half-century. He did not bowl too many overs on the tour. From 35 overs, he bagged just one wicket.
England's playing XI for 2nd Test
Zak Crawley, ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jamie Smith (wk), Brydon Carse, Matthew Potts, Jack Leach, Shoaib Bashir
Big changes in Pakistan side
Meanwhile, Pakistan have dropped Babar, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Afridi and former Test skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed from their squad following the historic defeating by an innings and 47 runs in the series opener.
Multan pitch report
The second Test will be played on the same pitch as the first Test. There was a lot of water on the pitch on October 13 and industrial fans were used to make it dry. From the looks of Pakistan’s recent squad announcement, the pitch is expected to help the spinners.
The pitch used for the first Test was under scrutiny of several current and former cricketers for being too batting-friendly. Even captain Shan Masood was critical of it for not providing much assistance for the bowlers.
Pakistan's Test squad:
Shan Masood (c), Saud Shakeel (vc), Aamir Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Haseebullah (wk), Kamran Ghulam, Mehran Mumtaz, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Huraira, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Noman Ali, Saim Ayub, Sajid Khan, Salman Ali Agha and Zahid Mahmood.
