PCB announces 16-man squad for 1st Test against England which set to begin from August 5

The Pakistan Cricket Board on Tuesday announced the 16-member squad for the first Test against England which begins on Wednesday, 5 August at Old Trafford.

Pakistan’s head coach and chief selector Misbah-ul-Haq has not ruled out the possibility of playing two spinners in the first encounter.

“We have looked at the West Indies series and we have seen that at Manchester and Southampton conditions are different and we are seeing some dry conditions and help for spinners and reverse swing,” Misbah said during a media interaction on Monday.

Stating that the top order of both teams would play a decisive role in the contest he said, “England’s batting has struggled in these conditions. It will be a match between how the top order of both teams performs. If you can cross 300 in the first innings your chances of winning are around 75 percent.”

“I think I am pretty much satisfied with the preparations, we assembled after three months and started from zero. It has been a wonderful experience, we require such camps before a



major series.

“This period was important for team bonding and preparations, creating match scenarios and good thing is the team is in good shape and looking forward to the series,” he added.

England have named an unchanged 14-man squad for the first of their three Tests against Pakistan.

PAK SQUAD: Azhar Ali (captain), Babar Azam (vice-captain), Abid Ali, Asad Shafiq, Fawad Alam, Imam-ul-Haq, Kashif Bhatti, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Rizwan, Naseem Shah, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Afridi, Shan Masood, Sohail Khan and Yasir Shah.

ENG SQUAD: Joe Root (Yorkshire, capt), James Anderson (Lancashire), Jofra Archer (Sussex), Dominic Bess (Somerset), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Rory Burns (Surrey), Jos Buttler (Lancashire, wk), Zak Crawley (Kent), Sam Curran (Surrey), Ollie Pope (Surrey), Dom Sibley (Warwickshire), Ben Stokes (Durham), Chris Woakes (Warwickshire), Mark Wood (Durham).

Reserves: James Bracey (Gloucestershire), Ben Foakes (Surrey, wk), Dan Lawrence (Essex), Jack Leach (Somerset).