Shan Masood underscores continuity as Pakistan reveal playing XI for England Test

LAHORE: As Pakistan look to take on England in the three-match Test series, the national side on Sunday announced their playing XI for the first match set to commence at Multan Cricket Stadium on Monday (tomorrow).

Speaking at a press conference, captain Shan Masood said: "This is our best playing XI [...] Aamir Jamal's inclusion will be beneficial. We have maintained our batting line-up to ensure consistency."

The three-match series is part of the ICC World Test Championship 2023-25 and will see the Men in Green eyeing a comeback in the longer format of the game after suffering a humiliating whitewash against Bangladesh last month.

Expressing his views on the upcoming match, Masood said that the visitors — who secured a 2-1 victory against Sri Lanka in September — have a balanced team and underscored the need to play strong cricket on the field.

Addressing England's skipper Ben Stokes' unavailability in the first Test, the captain said: "Stokes's absence will definitely affect England, but their playing XI is still strong, he is one of the world's best all-rounders."

"England have good seamers," he remarked.

"We have come close to losing in the past [....] A Test match is a five-day game, so you can't have one strategy," he added, noting that a rotation policy has to be introduced for workload management regarding the fast bowlers.

Conditions to help spinners, seamers

Meanwhile, expressing his views, England captain Ollie Pope said that the conditions were different in Multan and would help the spinners and seamers.

"It will be interesting to see how the pitch plays out [...] The [team] plan depends on the pitch and will be chalked out accordingly, " he said while speaking to the media.

Noting that England bowlers will try to get as many wickets as possible in these conditions, Pope underscored the significance for consistency in the performance of the spinners.

"We have two regular spinners meaning that we may not be required to test Joe Root's skills [in bowling department," he added.

"The Pakistan team, though not playing well recently, is a tough team nevertheless [and] with bowlers like Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah, we have to play good cricket," remarked the England captain.

Playing XIs for first Test

Pakistan: Shan Masood (captain), Saud Shakeel (vice-captain), Saim Ayub, Abdullah Shafique, Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan (wicket-keeper), Salman Ali Agha, Aamir Jamal, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Abrar Ahmad

England: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope (captain), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith, Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Jack Leach, Shoaib Bashir