England are back in Pakistan for a three-Test series and will kick off the action in Multan with Ollie Pope wearing the armband once again in the absence of the recovering Ben Stokes. Ahead of the first Test match between Pakistan and England, here’s our match preview and predictions.
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First Test | England tour of Pakistan 2024 | 10:30 IST, October 7
England return to Pakistan, especially Multan, where two years ago, their ‘Bazball’ era started, which saw them whitewash Pakistan at home in 2022. With McCullum at the helm, England come off the back of two series wins, against West Indies and Sri Lanka although the Brits will be playing their fourth straight Test without their captain Ben Stokes, who is recovering from a torn hamstring and has been ruled out of the first Test.
Ollie Pope will be wearing the armband once again but even in Stokes’ absence, England have plenty of talent, experience and firepower in their arsenal. Ben Duckett will be key for the visitors up top as will be Joe Root, who will have added responsibility with no Stokes in the team. The young Harry Brook and Jamie Smith will have eyes on them too and on pitches which should suit batting, this will be a good test for two of England’s young talents. England have brought back Chris Woakes, for his first Test in almost two years while Jack Leach and Shoaib Bashir will be the two key spinners for the visitors.
The hosts on the other hand have been going through a torrid time. They are on a five match loss streak and were recently whitewashed by Bangladesh at home. Shan Masood has his task cut out and will be hoping that his star batters, Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan along with the likes of Saud Shakeel, Abudullah Shafique step up during a tumultuous time for the team. Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah will have their task cut out too on pitches which might not be suited best for them while Abrar Ahmed will be the hosts’ lead spinner and along with Mir Hamza and Aamer Jamal will have a lot of responsibility on their shoulders.
The Multan pitch is a high-scoring ground which might assist the seamers on the opening day but expect a high scoring game with the spinners set to come into the game from the third day onwards. Given their current forms and squad strength, it will be Ollie Pope’s men who are the favourites to start the series with a win.
Fantasy XI
Ben Duckett, Joe Root, Babar Azam, Harry Brook, Ollie Pope, Saud Shakeel, Shan Masood, Mohammad Rizwan, Chris Woakes, Shobai Bashir, Shaheen Shah Afridi
Venue: Multan
Winners Prediction: England
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