Under the captaincy of Ben Stokes, the England team has reached Pakistan for the 3-Test series. The England team will play a Test match in Pakistan after 17 years.
The first match of the series will be played on December 1 at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium. Earlier, during October-December 2005, England went to play a Test series in Pakistan for the last time.
Stokes said – Hello Pakistan
Batter Joe Root and the rest of the team players including England captain Ben Stokes have reached Karachi. English captain Ben Stokes tweeted as soon as he reached Pakistan – Hello Pakistan. England team will reach Rawalpindi from Karachi.
The first Test of the series will be played here. The second Test will be played in Multan from 9 to 13 December and the third Test in Karachi from 17 to 21 December.
The England team has so far played 24 Test matches on Pakistan’s soil. The team was able to win only 2 of these matches. The team got its first win in 1961 at Lahore ground and second win in 2000 at Karachi ground.
England has also included 18-year-old Rehan Ahmed in the squad for the Test series against Pakistan. Rehan is a leg spinner. Former Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq had said- ‘I saw Rehan bowling for the first time at the age of 11. I was surprised to see his googly. Excited to see him play in Pakistan.
Played 7 T20s in September
England had earlier also gone to Pakistan to play a 7-match T20 series during September-October. This series took place just before the T20 World Cup held in Australia. England won the series 4–3. These two teams met in the final of the T20 World Cup after a bilateral series in Pakistan. England won the final match.
Pakistan won in 2005
In 2005, the England team went to Pakistan to play a series of 3 Tests and 5 ODIs. Pakistan defeated England 2-0 by winning the first and third Test of the series. The second test was a draw. The ODI series was also won by Pakistan by a margin of 3-2. Michael Vaughan was the Test captain of England and Inzamam-ul-Haq of Pakistan in the series.
The squad of both the teams
Pakistan: Babar Azam (Captain), Mohammad Rizwan (Wicket-keeper), Imam-ul-Haq, Abdullah Shafiq, Salman Ali Agha, Mohammad Nawaz, Abrar Ahmed, Azhar Ali, Faheem Ashraf, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Naseem Shah, Nauman Ali, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wicketkeeper), Saud Shakeel, Shan Masood and Zahid Mahmood.
England: Ben Stokes (c), Jack Crawley, Keaton Jennings, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Duckett, Liam Livingstone, Will Jacks, Ben Foakes (wk), Jamie Overton, Ollie Robinson, James Anderson, Mark Wood, Jack Leach, and Rehan Ahmed.