RAWALPINDI/ISLAMABAD: In the opening test against Pakistan on Thursday, England won the toss and decided to bat first. The match took place as scheduled despite a virus having swept through the visitors’ camp in Rawalpindi during the week.
The England team made a change to their original playing 11, replacing Ben Stokes with Will Jacks, who makes his test debut along with all-rounder Liam Livingstone.
“We’ve had some illness going round but we were really excited to get started,” Stokes said after winning the toss.
“It’s not been ideal obviously, to start our tour like this, but hopefully we’ll be fine.”
In their playing 11, Pakistan named four debutants: Saud Shakeel, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Ali, and Zahid Mehmood.
This will be England’s first test visit of Pakistan since 2005, and they will also play at Multan and Karachi.
