Pakistan vs England Match Preview, 3rd Test

Pakistan and England. (Source – Getty Images)

After suffering a humiliating defeat in the first Test, Pakistan (PAK) made a remarkable comeback in the second game of the series, winning by 152 runs. They made plenty of changes in the game, including dropping Babar Azam, Naseem Shah and Shaheen Afridi and that seems to have worked for the hosts. They have now named an unchanged playing XI for the third and final Test in Rawalpindi and are also very confident of winning and sealing the series 2-1.

The hosts are also preparing a pitch that will heavily favour the spinners. Vice-captain Saud Shakeel recently stated that they have identified weakness of England (ENG) and will be looking forward to taking advantage of that in the third Test. For the same reason, they are once again backing three spinners for the third Test.

England have also made multiple changes to their squad for the third Test. They have sent  Brydon Carse and Matthew Potts have been sent back to England as the Ben Stokes-led side called up Rehan Ahmed and Gus Atkinson. With Rehan back, England too will be playing three spinners in the third Test.

However, their main concern will be batting. The batting unit flopped big time in the second innings of the last Test and that is one area that the team will be hoping to improve in to find a positive result. For Pakistan, it will be to keep things simple and keep up with the same template that worked in Multan.

Also Read – Noman Ali opens up on spin exploit against England in Multan

Pitch Report

The surface in Rawalpindi will heavily favour the spinners. The game can even finish within four days. They have dried the surface in the last few days and it will come into effect once the game gets old. Batting first will be the ideal thing to do as the surface is expected to deteriorate. 

Head-To-Head Record

PAK vs ENG Playing XIs

Pakistan

Pakistan have named an unchanged playing XI for the third Test. That combination worked very well and there’s no reason why they would look forward to changing it. They will just hope that the batting unit contributes more.

Playing XI – Saim Ayub, Abdullah Shafique, Shan Masood (c), Kamran Ghulam, Saud Shakeel (vc), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Salman Ali Agha, Aamir Jamal, Noman Ali, Sajid Khan, Zahid Mehmood.

England

England have named two changes to their playing XI. Rehan Ahmed will be making his comeback and so will Gus Atkinson, who has been exceptional for the Three Lions since making his debut earlier in the year.

Playing XI – Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope (wk), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jamie Smith, Gus Atkinson, Rehan Ahmed, Jack Leach, Shoaib Bashir.