Ben Stokes in action for England
Photo : AP
England have revealed their playing XI for the 2nd Test against Pakistan on Monday, 14th October ahead of the penultimate match, which starts from Tuesday, 15th October at the Multan Cricket Stadium in Multan. Captain Ben Stokes is finally back in the line-up after missing the Sri Lanka series due to a hamstring injury, which he picked up while playing The Hundred.
In absence of Stokes, Ollie Pope took the responsibility of leading the side and he has done a pretty good job so far by leading the Three Lions to a 2-1 Test series and also helped them to gain a 1-0 advantage in the ongoing Test series against the Shan Masood-led side.
The return of Stokes will definitely provide boost to the side as his contribution both with the bat and ball will come in handy to clinch the series. The visiting side have left out Gus Atkinson and Chris Woakes, while Matthew Potts have made his way back to the playing XI.
Pakistan, on the other hand have dropped star players in Babar Azam, Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah from their squad as they look to experiment after a string of disappointing performances at home.
Speaking of the 1st Test, Shan Masood's men, despite of scoring 556 in the first innings, lost their momentum in the bowling department as England with the help of Joe Root's 262 and Harry Brook's 317 put up a mammoth score of 823/7. After declaring the innings, the home side suffered a batting collapse and were no where near the performance, they put up in the first innings. They were eventually bundled out for 220, thus suffering an innings and a 47-run loss in front of the home crowd.
With renewed determination, Pakistan will be looking to put their past woes behind and will try to take the series to the final Test.
England XI: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (captain), Jamie Smith, Brydon Carse, Matthew Potts, Jack Leach, Shoaib Bashir.
Pakistan XI: Sam Ayub, Abdullah Shafique, Shan Masood (captain), Kamran Ghulam, Saud Shakeel, Mohammad Rizwan, Salman Ali Agha, Aamir Jamal, Noman Ali, Sajid Khan, Zahid Mehmood.
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