Pakistan vs England, 2nd Test - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

Teams:

Pakistan (Playing XI): Saim Ayub, Abdullah Shafique, Shan Masood(c), Kamran Ghulam, Saud Shakeel, Mohammad Rizwan(w), Agha Salman, Aamer Jamal, Noman Ali, Sajid Khan, Zahid Mahmood

England (Playing XI): Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes(c), Jamie Smith(w), Matthew Potts, Brydon Carse, Jack Leach, Shoaib Bashir

Preview by Ahsan Iftikhar Nagi

Desperate times call for desperate measures and the last 24 hours have been the perfect encapsulation of the dire state that the Pakistan cricket finds itself in. The PCB has taken a call - that come across as borderline puzzling - to arrest an abysmal slump.

The mauling by an innings and 47 runs in the first Test has resulted in Pakistan replacing their mainstays with uncapped and inexperienced players for the second and third Tests. Among the five fresh players added to the mix, only Sajid Khan (one Test in January against Australia) and Mohammad Ali (two against Bangladesh in the last series) have played Tests this year. The other three - Kamran Ghulam, Mehran Mumtaz, and Haseebullah - are yet to play at this level.

There has been an addition to the coaching staff too following the fielding lapses towards the end of England's monstrous 823 for 7 with Mohammad Masroor taking charge as the fielding coach for the remainder of the series.

The final practice session on Monday before the second Test began with the players and coaches from the two teams congregating beside the pitch. This was a vision that was not seen before the first Test as the groundstaff opted to keep the pitch under cover whenever the teams arrived at the Multan Cricket Stadium to train.

The change is spurred by Pakistan's desire for the pitch to bake under a searing Multan sun and the cracks to open and for spin to come into play right from the first session. Each end of the pitch was dotted with dark footmarks, but their proximity to the popping crease will not bother the batters much.

As Cricbuzz revealed on Sunday, Pakistan, in a break from tradition, have decided to re-use the pitch that staged the first Test. The groundstaff have shaved the square substantially to make sure spin and reverse swing - both of which were minimal in the first Test - come into play throughout the entire course of the second Test.

Pakistan's newly appointed selectors - Aleem Dar, Azhar Ali, and Aaqib Javed - had lengthy conversations with Shan Masood, Jason Gillespie, head curator Tony Hemming, and PCB's director for international cricket operations Usman Wahla beside the 22-yards. Often a selector or two broke from the group to walk over or besides the pitch, scrutinising almost every crack.

England, meanwhile, were unfazed by the developments some metres away from their centre net. They have, after all, succeeded in bulldozing all of Pakistan's plans by winning the their last four Tests in this country. The only observations from the England camp were limited to brief separate pauses on the strip from Chris Woakes and the pair of Brendon McCullum and Ben Duckett. James Anderson had a roll of arm at Harry Brook, but all eyes remained fixated on their returning captain Ben Stokes, who batted, bowled, and even had a close-in slip fielding drill.

When: FromTuesday, October 15 at 10AM Local | 10:30AM IST

Where: Multan Cricket Stadium, Multan

What to expect: It has been a rather eventful build-up towards the second Test and Pakistan have tried everything that they could to ensure it doesn't end as the first one. The turning nature of the pitch will move this Test at a rather drastic pace. The scorching sun will continue to debilitate the players as the temperatures are forecasted to remain in the high 30 degrees Celsius.

Team news

Pakistan: The hosts named three specialist spinners in their playing XI as well and confirmed that highly-rated batter Kamran Ghulam would replace Babar Azam in the Xi.

Pakistan XI: Abdullah Shafique, Saim Ayub, Shan Masood (c), Kamran Ghulam, Saud Shakeel, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Salman Ali Agha, Aamer Jamal, Sajid Khan, Noman Ali, and Zahid Mahmood

England - The tourists confirmed their side after the conclusion of their training session on Monday. Ben Stokes is back at the helm nine weeks after sustaining a hamstring injury and Matt Potts is the other change from the XI that registered an astonishing win last week. Chris Woakes and Gus Atkinson have been rested.

Playing XI: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jamie Smith (wk), Brydon Carse, Matt Potts, Jack Leach, and Shoaib Bashir.

Did you know?

- Harry Brook's 317 in the first innings is the most runs that a batter has scored across three Tests in Pakistan this year. The next best on the list is Mohammad Rizwan with 304 runs in six innings

- Pakistan have now lost six Tests on trot, which is their joint-worst defeat streak in the format

- This is the first time since January 2021 that Pakistan are playing a Test without Babar Azam. The former Pakistan captain had missed the Test then because of a thumb injury that he sustained at the start of the tour.

What they said?

"Our instruction [to the curator] was for the ball to turn after second day but that did not happen. But, the day did not turn even until the fifth day. Hopefully, it will turn on this 'ninth day' wicket in the second Test." -Azhar Mahmood

"It is the first time I will be playing on a used wicket in a Test series. I think we could sit here and say 'it's going to do this, it's going to do that' but who knows? You'd like to think its going to offer the spinners a bit more than it did last week and it being used and hot. It is a slightly drier square so you might see a little more reverse swing. We will have to wait and see what happens." - Ben Stokes

Squads:

Pakistan Squad: Saim Ayub, Abdullah Shafique, Shan Masood(c), Mohammad Huraira, Saud Shakeel, Mohammad Rizwan(w), Agha Salman, Aamer Jamal, Mehran Mumtaz, Sajid Khan, Mohammad Ali, Kamran Ghulam, Noman Ali, Zahid Mahmood, Haseebullah Khan, Mir Hamza

England Squad: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes(c), Jamie Smith(w), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Jack Leach, Shoaib Bashir, Brydon Carse, Olly Stone, Matthew Potts, Jordan Cox, Rehan Ahmed