Ben Stokes will not be able to participate in England’s first Test against Pakistan as he is still suffering from a hamstring injury – as Ollie Pope replaces him in his absence.
A hamstring injury was also the reason that England captain couldn’t played series against Sri Lanka
Due to Stokes injury, Ollie Pope is selected again for captaincy.
Stokes verified that he won’t be able to play after practice session on Saturday and said he will try his level best to get well soon so that he will be able to play second match, starting on October 15.
The first test match of England and Pakistan series will held on October 7 at Multan Cricket Stadium. The 33 year old all-rounder is suffering injury from the start of August, got suffered from hamstring injury in the Hundred League.
England decided to give a debut chance to his Durham fellow member Brydon Carse, who reached 90mph/145kph in the recent series that was played against Australia.
But it will be tough for him to touch those heights in the challenging temperatures predicted to be minimum 36 degrees in Multan. England’s team management also decided to give chance to Chris Woakes to play first international test series since 2022.
England’s spinner Jack Leach will also join back his team, he lastly played a Test match in January against India at Hyderabad, and will continue with his Somerset fellow player Shoaib Bashir.
It is also observed that, Mark Wood and Ollie Robinson, who both gave an excellent performance during their last tour against Pakistan, they both took 17 wickets collectively, are not included in the squad of upcoming Test series.
Wood is not playing due to injury while Robinson hasn’t been picked by the management.
Well, England’s fast bowling players for the Pakistan series includes Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Matthew Potts, Ollie Stone, and Chris Woakes. Woakes will be playing first Test match in Asia since 2016.
On the other hand, the remaining four fast-bowlers don’t have any international Test match experience, that can be a stress point on the bowling unit of England.
It is also notified that England’s fast bowling trainer James Andreson will not join their team for their series in Pakistan, as he is playing in Scotland’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. The golf tournament will end on October 6, after that it is predicted that he might join his team on the second day of first test match against Pakistan.
Ben Stokes is not playing in the team for four matches consecutively. It will be a trouble for England’s management because captain is still not sure that either he’ll able to play the second match or not. That will be played in Multan too. Ollie pope replaced Ben stokes as a captain for straight four games, leading them to win a series against Sri Lanka last month.
“I tried my hardest to try and get myself fit for this first game but we’ve taken the call to miss this one. I’ve not quite managed to get game ready,” Stokes said.
England Playing XI for first Pakistan Test:
Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope (C), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith, Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse (Debut), Jack Leach, and Shoaib Bashir.
