England and Pakistan played out a very closely fought contest last week in Old Trafford, Manchester. The hosts emerged victorious in what one can describe as – “snatching victory from the jaws of defeat” after they were 117/5 chasing 277 to win. Thanks to the heroic batting display of Jos Buttler and Chris Woakes, England lead the 3 match series 1-0 and there’s plenty to play for in the second test which is scheduled to start on Thursday the 13th of August in Southampton.
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England have to make one forced change as their talismanic vice-captain Benjamin Stokes has made himself unavailable citing family reasons. He is due to travel to his birth nation New Zealand where his father is recovering from a serious illness. His replacement would come in the form of Zak Crawley who played the first 2 tests against West Indies and sat out in the third game for a better balance in the squad.
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No with Zak Crawley slotted in at no. 3, captain Joe Root will play at 4 which is his preferred position. Chris Woakes is undroppable after his man of the match performance and if England wants to make any changes they will have to drop either of James Anderson or Stuart Broad or Jofra Archer. The bench strength is enormous, they can turn to either Sam Curran or Mark Wood or even Ollie Robinson to fill up a spot.
Pakistan captain Azhar Ali might want to change his fast bowling combination especially after the inexperienced duo of Naseem Shah and Shaheen Afridi failed to close out the first test after having England on the backfoot.
England XI: Dom Sibley, Rory Burns, Zak Crawley, Joe Root, Ollie Pope, Jos Buttler, Chris Woakes, Dom Bess, Stuart Broad, Jofra Archer, James Anderson
Pakistan XI: Shan Masood, Abid Ali, Azhar Ali, Babar Azam, Asad Shafiq, Mohammad Rizwan, Shadab Khan, Yasir Shah, Naseem Shah, Mohammed Abbas, Shaheen Afridi.
Key players to watch out for
Joe Root: The captain will be batting in his preferred position at #4 and will be looking to make up for his bad form in the last 3 Tests. Joe Root scored 117 runs in the 3 innings in 2018 when Pakistan toured last time around. He will be looking to improve his numbers this time around
Sam Curran: The lucky charm as they say, in all probability will be playing this match ahead of either of the pacers. England have never lost a Test in England whenever Sam Curran has played. Sam Curran averages just 17 with the ball in the last 5 tests that he has played. In his only test in Rosebowl, Curran averages 62 with the bat and 21 with the ball.
Azhar Ali: The visiting captain has been going through a rough patch as well. He started another away series is a poor manner. He managed to score just 18 runs in the 1st test. In the last two away series in Australia and South Africa, Azhar Ali managed to score just 111 runs in 10 innings (4 innings in Australia and 6 innings in South Africa) which is quite poor. Being the captain of the team, he would be looking to lead from the front and a big knock is due from the captain.
Weather Report
Day 1: Thunderstorms are expected
Day 2,3: Sunny or cloudy skies
Day 4,5: Rain is expected
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