MULTAN: England have won the toss and elected to bat first against Pakistan in second test against the host country. They have already clinched thrilling victory in first test match in Rawalpindi.
Commenting on the pitch, England’s Ben Stokes said “Have to wait and see what it [the pitch] offers but hopefully we can go out and set the same sort of benchmark with the bat.”
England had named their XI in advance, with Mark Wood coming in for the injured Liam Livingstone. Babar Azam says he too would have batted. “Pitch looks dry, we will have to bowl in the right areas.
ملتان ٹیسٹ میں ٹیم @babarazam258 میں تین تبدیلیوں کا فیصلہ ۔۔ سابق کپتان اظہر علی ڈراپ۔۔ نسیم شاہ اور حارث رؤف ان فٹ ۔۔ آل راونڈرز فہیم اشرف اور محمد نواز کی ٹیم میں واپسی ۔۔ لیگ بریک گگلی بولر ابرار احمد ڈیبیو کر رہے ہیں ۔۔ pic.twitter.com/OFkg23SGbw
— Syed Yahya Hussaini (@SYahyaHussaini) December 9, 2022
At Pakistan’s side, three changes confirmed, i.e. Naseem, Haris Rauf and Azhar dropped out, with Abrar, Nawaz and Faheem coming in. Five genuine bowling options for them this time out. Azhar Ali misses out for only the 6th Test since making his Test debut in 2010. He has represented Pakistan in 96 out of 102 Tests in that period.
Pakistan have gone in with six options of spin in this Multan Test. Expecting the pitch to offer lots of assistance to the spinners/
Pakistan: 1 Imam-ul-Haq, 2 Abdullah Shafique, 3 Babar Azam (capt), 4 Saud Shakeel, 5 Mohammad Rizwan (wk), 6 Agha Salman, 7 Mohammad Nawaz, 8 Faheem Ashraf, 9 Zahid Mahmood, 10 Abrar Ahmed, 11 Mohammad Ali
