Pakistan and England are set to start the second Test game of the series at the same venue, Multan Cricket Stadium, where they endured an inning defeat just last week. But since then, Pakistan’s cricket system has taken yet another shake-up. There have been new hirings and firings. There have been many unbelievable changes. All of this has pushed England out of the limelight. The fact that Ben Stokes might get to roll his arm over once again has been overlooked by the fans who were too engrossed in the soap opera-ish stuff the Pakistan Cricket Board gave over the weekend.
Team Overview:
Ben Stokes will finally take the captaincy duties from Ollie Pope as he comes back into the team having healed from his injury. In addition to coming in as a captain, we might see him bowl during the match as well since he was seen bowling in the nets. Matthew Potts has been added back to the squad as well. This Test game might not be as much of a high-scorer as the first one, however, England’s batting resources are fully stocked for either situation.
Pakistan have decided to go more Bazball than England themselves. Dropping Babar Azam, Shaheen Shah Afridi, and Naseem Shah is how they have decided to present their approach as unorthodox. The hosts will also field as many as three specialist spinners, all of whom will play a Test match after a fair few months. Besides Shaheen and Naseem, Abrar Ahmed will also sit out due to his illness. This means Pakistan will be with three specialist spinners, a fast bowling and a spinning all-rounder. It would be interesting to see how Shan Masood will use his monotonous bowling resources on the Multan pitch which is left in the hopes of supporting spinners.
Head-to-Head Matches:
From 1954 to the present, in these 70 years of Test cricket between these two teams, Pakistan won 21 out of 90 while England won 30. The rest of 39 Tests ended in a draw.
Weather and Pitch Report:
This Test match will be played on the same strip as the first Test match. Although Pakistan are expecting the deck to start somehow assisting spinners, this is not very likely to unfold. At best, the pitch might not show as atrocious behavior to batters as it did in the previous game. The weather in Multan will remain clear and the temperature is likely to drop as well.
Prediction:
This match will be a series decider. However, the recent changes made by Pakistan have made England more likely to get over the line during the second Test match as well.
Playing XI:
Pakistan: 1 Saim Ayub, 2 Abdullah Shafique, 3 Shan Masood (capt), 4 Kamran Ghulam, 5 Saud Shakeel, 6 Mohammad Rizwan (wk), 7 Salman Agha, 8 Aamer Jamal, 9 Sajid Khan, 10 Noman Ali, 11 Zahid Mehmood
England: 1 Zak Crawley, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Ollie Pope, 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Ben Stokes (capt), 7 Jamie Smith (wk), 8 Matthew Potts, 9 Brydon Carse, 10 Jack Leach, 11 Shoaib Bashir.
Where to Watch:
Pakistan: A Sports, Tapmad, Tamasha, PTV Sports, Geo Super
North America: Willow TV
England: Sky Sports, BBC Sport (Radio)
MENA and South East Asia: Cricbuzz
India: Fancode
Australia: Fox Sports
