RAWALPINDI: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has confirmed the unchanged starting XI for the third Test against England, scheduled from October 24 to 28 at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium.
The announcement came a day after England named their spin-laden line-up to match Pakistan’s spin attack that earned hosts a resounding victory in Multan.
Visitors made two changes in their Playing XI yesterday, bringing in leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed and seamer Gus Atkinson in place of Brydon Carse and Matthew Potts.
Over the weekend, the curators have put everything including deploying industrial-sized fans and heaters with windbreakers surrounding the strip to dry the surface in Pindi to replicate last week’s turner in Multan which helped Pakistan pull a 152-run win to level the three-match series 1-1.
“It’s an interesting pitch,” Pakistan’s head coach Jason Gillespie said. “Since I’ve been here, there’ve been fans on which we’ve all seen. So obviously it’s very dry and not a lot of grass on it. We probably expect it to favor the slower balls here.”
As the pitch in Rawalpindi is anticipated to favor spin bowlers, the Green Shirts have decided to field the same spin-heavy bowling attack, featuring Sajid Khan, Noman Ali, and Zahid Mahmood. Aamir Jamal, who also provides Pakistan depth in batting will play as the sole pacer.
Pakistan will be looking for their first home series win since beating South Africa 2-0 in February 2021 and their first series win after a 2-0 victory in Sri Lanka in July.
Pakistan Playing XI: Saim Ayub, Abdullah Shafique, Shan Masood (c), Kamran Ghulam, Saud Shakeel (vc), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Salman Ali Agha, Aamir Jamal, Noman Ali, Sajid Khan, Zahid Mahmood.
England Playing XI: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jamie Smith (wk), Gus Atkinson, Rehan Ahmed, Jack Leach, Shoaib Bashir.
