England’s Test captain Ben Stokes will miss the first Test against Pakistan, starting October 7 in Multan, due to a lingering hamstring injury.
Stokes has been sidelined since August and also missed the recent Sri Lanka series. Despite joining the squad and participating in training, fitness concerns have led to his omission from the first Test.
The 33-year-old all-rounder suffered the injury on August 11 while playing in The Hundred. His absence is a major blow to England, as Stokes’ leadership and experience have been crucial to the team’s recent successes under head coach Brendon McCullum. Vice-captain Ollie Pope will likely lead the team in Stokes’ absence.
Pakistan and England are scheduled to play a three-match Test series in Multan and Rawalpindi from October 7 to October 28.
The first PAK v ENG Test match will be played at the Multan Cricket Stadium from October 7 to 11, while the second Test match will be played at the same venue from October 15 to 19.
The third Test match will commence on October 24 and will take place at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium.
Ahead of the Test series, cricket commentator Nasser Hussain also said that the Pakistan team has the ability to bounce back from their low.
“Pakistan are always a mercurial side that have ups and downs, but at the moment, they’re on a real low, in all formats. They didn’t have a great (T20) World Cup. They’ve got another coach-captain combination in Jason Gillespie and Shan Masood, their star batter Babar Azam hasn’t got a half-century in his last eight Test matches and has just given up the white-ball captaincy. But you’d be a fool to say that going to Pakistan and winning is an easy job to do,” he added.
