Pakistan name 16-man squad for the 1st Test against England

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Tuesday announced the 16-man squad for the first test against England starting from August 5 at Old Trafford. 

Team’s head coach Misbah Ul Haq has also hinted at playing two spinners in the first test as he said, “We have looked at the West Indies series and we have seen that at Manchester and Southampton conditions are different and we are seeing some dry conditions and help for spinners and reverse swing,” 

Misbah stated that even the top order batsmen of England have struggled to score runs at the Manchester. It was also seen during the first Test match against the West Indies which England lost by 4 wickets. 

Misbah-ul-Haq

 “England’s batting has struggled in these conditions. It will be a match between how the top order of both teams performs. If you can cross 300 in the first innings your chances of winning are around 75 per cent.”

“I think I am pretty much satisfied with the preparations, we assembled after three months and started from zero. It has been a wonderful experience, we require such camps before a major series.

“This period was important for team bonding and preparations, creating match scenarios and the good thing is the team is in good shape and looking forward to the series,” he added.

Pakistan’s 16-man squad:  Azhar Ali (captain), Babar Azam (vice-captain), Abid Ali, Asad Shafiq, Fawad Alam, Imam-ul-Haq, Kashif Bhatti, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Rizwan, Naseem Shah, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Afridi, Shan Masood, Sohail Khan and Yasir Shah.

England’s squad: Joe Root (capt), James Anderson, Jofra Archer, Dominic Bess, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler (wk), Zak Crawley, Sam Curran, Ollie Pope, Dom Sibley, Ben Stokes (vice-captain), Chris Woakes, Mark Wood