Pakistan captain Azhar Ali has won the toss and elected to bat first in the opening Test match against England in Manchester.
After spending the past month and a bit in a bio-bubble in the UK, the Pakistan team will be hoping to keep their impressive Test record against England intact over the course of the three encounters.
READ: England vs Pakistan – Five players to watch
England are coming off the back of an impressive series victory over the West Indies, during which they performed particularly well at Old Trafford.
??#ENGvPAK pic.twitter.com/vjD5wqVmI7
— Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) August 5, 2020
Pakistan have included the 17-year-old Naseem Shah in their starting team for the first Test, while spinner Yasir Shah will be hoping to replicate some of the success he’s achieved on English soil in the past.
England, on the other hand, have opted for the exact same team that beat the West Indies in the final Test match more than a week ago, with all of James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Jofra Archer and Chris Woakes in the team.
Watch: Ireland shock England in Southampton
The television umpire will also call front-foot no-balls for the first time in this Test, after a lot of concern emerged during the West Indies series over the number of no-balls missed by on-field umpires.
England: Rory Burns, Dom Sibley, Joe Root (c), Ben Stokes, Ollie Pope, Jos Buttler (wk), Chris Woakes, Dom Bess, Jofra Archer, Stuart Broad, James Anderson.
Pakistan: Shan Masood, Abid Ali, Azhar Ali (c), Babar Azam, Asad Shafiq, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Shadab Khan, Yasir Shah, Mohammad Abbas, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah.
