After an embarrassing defeat in the opening Test, the Pakistan Cricket Board has taken the big call to drop their star players Babar Azam, Shaheen Shah Afridi, and Naseem Shah over “current form and fitness”.
Pakistan head into the second Test desperate to avoid another series defeat at home to England, which will be their second in as many years, while England will be looking to wrap up the series in Multan.
Ahead of the second Test match, here are our match preview and predictions.
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Second Test | England tour of Pakistan 2024 | 10:30 IST, October 15
The biggest talking point heading into the second Test match is be the omission of Azam, Afridi, and Shah. Pakistan have chosen two uncapped players in Kamran Ghulam and Haseebullah Khan along with the experienced Noman Ali and Sajid Khan.
In all honesty, after the opening two days of the first Test, one could be forgiven to think Pakistan would go on to win the game. Centuries from Abdullah Shafique, Shan Masood, and Salman Agha had helped Pakistan put up a massive total of 556 despite their star batters Azam and Mohammad Rizwan failing to deliver on a batter-friendly pitch. It was their bowling that let them down, as Afridi, Shah, and Aamer Jamal proved very ordinary, and Abrar Ahmed’s illness forced Pakistan to rely further on their part-time spinners, which allowed England to make the most of the conditions.
After a strong performance in the first innings, it was a complete collapse in the second innings. Pakistan needed to see out one-and-half days to draw the Test, but only some rear-guard action from Salman Agha and Jamal saw them even reach a respectable total in their innings defeat.
Pakistan go into the second Test without Azam, who has been having a rough run and has been omitted, which will give the rest of the lineup a chance to step up. Captain Shan Masood, who got 151 in the first innings, will need to lead from the front again with no Azam to rely on. The bowlers, meanwhile, have a lot on their hands without Afridi and Shah, leaving the spinners to contain the dangerous English line-up.
After a disappointing bowling performance in the first innings, with only Jack Leach getting some wickets, the batters helped England get back into the game last time round. Zak Crawley gave them a strong start and Ben Duckett continued his strong run of form before Joe Root and Harry Brook’s historic partnership saw England bat Pakistan out of the game as they put up 823/7.
In the second innings, Leach again caused all sorts of trouble for the hosts and was supported well by Gus Atkinson and Brydon Carse as they snatched what had looked like an unlikely win for most of the game. England will hope their bowlers step up once again on a pitch that will not be helping them. They will be further boosted by the return of their captain Ben Stokes, who along with Matt Potts will return to the starting XI, with Chris Woakes and Gus Atkinson missing out.
Playing at the same Multan ground where Pakistan have decided to re-use the same pitch from the first game, we should be in for another flat wicket, which will mean more runs as England hold the advantage once again; we expect Ben Stokes and Co to wrap up the series.
Fantasy XI
Ben Duckett, Joe Root, Shan Masood, Harry Brook, Ollie Pope, Ben Stokes, Saud Shakeel, Salman Agha, Mohammad Rizwan, Shoaib Bashir, Aamer Jamal
Venue: Multan
Winners Prediction: England
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