LONDON: Ben Stokes returns as captain for England’s three-Test tour of Pakistan next month while Brydon Carse could make his debut just weeks after completing a ban for breaches of betting rules.

Stokes will skipper the side after missing the 2-1 home series win against Sri Lanka with a hamstring injury. Opener Zak Crawley is also in the squad announced on Tuesday after missing the same series with a broken finger.

Bowling all-rounder Carse, who returned to action in late August after serving a three-month ban for historical betting violations, appears to be the main beneficiary of a year-ending elbow injury to Durham team-mate and fellow quick Mark Wood.

The South Africa-born 29-year-old, who has featured in 17 white-ball internationals for England, takes his place in a 17-strong squad alongside another player yet to make his Test bow, Jordan Cox.

Dan Lawrence, a makeshift opener against Sri Lanka in the absence of Crawley, has been dropped.

Young left-arm fast bowler Josh Hull has been retained while Jack Leach and Rehan Ahmed — two spinners who featured in England’s historic 3-0 series whitewash over Pakistan in 2022 — are recalled.

Leach was displaced as England’s number one spinner this season by Shoaib Bashir but the Somerset pair, plus Leicestershire’s Ahmed, form Stokes’s trio of frontline slow bowling options.

The tour is scheduled to get under way on October 7 in Multan. There are due to be further Tests in Karachi and Rawalpindi but renovations ahead of next year’s ICC Champions Trophy are causing problems at those venues.

One or more of the games could be moved to the United Arab Emirates or Sri Lanka.

However, as reported by Dawn earlier, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) believes there is room for the series to be held within the country despite the presence of certain obstacles.

The matches are scheduled to be held in Multan (Oct. 7-11), Karachi (Oct. 15-19) and Rawalpindi (Oct. 24-28). But with Karachi set to be ruled out as one of the host venues — pertaining to the ongoing construction work to prepare the metropolis’ National Bank Stadium for the Champions Trophy — a tweak in the series itinerary is imminent.

The PCB, Dawn reported, mulled over shifting the Karachi fixture to Rawalpindi, but the idea was discarded when the board learnt the high-profile Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting would be held during the same time in Islamabad.

Therefore, the reorganised schedule may see the PCB may shift the first Test from Multan to Rawalpindi and before returning to the former city for the second match and hold the final match in Rawalpindi, giving the garrison city the opportunity to host two games.

England would be looking to make the most of the poor state if the cricket affairs in Pakistan, with the national side recently registering their first-ever Test whitewash against Bangladesh in a two-match series.

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

Published in Dawn, September 11th, 2024