England have been boasted with the return of Zak Crawley for the three-match Test series against Pakistan. He suffered a finger injury during the red-ball series against West Indies and missed out on representing the team in their next assignment against Sri Lanka. Dan Lawrence, who played out of position in his absence failed to impress with the bat and looked frenetic, has been dropped as anticipated. Barring this, their batting order is the same as it was against Sri Lanka in the third Test at the Kennington Oval.
However, the Three Lions have made notable changes in the bowling department with Jack Leach set to play his first Test for England since January this year. He will be partnering with Somerset ally Shoaib Bashir while Brydon Carse is set to make his Test debut, being preferred over Matt Potts and Olly Stone who were a part of the recent Sri Lanka series.
In Stokes’ absence, Chris Woakes will be playing his first overseas Test in two-and-a-half years. He will be partnering with Carse and Gus Atkinson with the latter recovering from a minor thigh injury. Previously, Carse was banned due to gambling on Durham games but is cleared to play now and has been backed due to his better batting abilities.
England are positioned fourth in the 2023-25 World Test Championship points table with 42.19 percentage points. They will be eyeing to replicate their dominance in Pakistani soil like they did in 2022.
England XI vs Pakistan: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope (c), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Jack Leach, Shoaib Bashir
