Ben Stokes Returns to Lead an All-Durham Seam Attack in England's Second Test

England’s red ball skipper Ben Stokes will be seen back in action nine weeks after he picked a hamstring injury during The Hundred as he has been deemed fit to lead the tourists in the second Multan Test against Pakistan, commencing Tuesday. 

Stokes had been working on his fitness on the sidelines of the opening Multan Test against Pakistan and used the time between sessions to obtain the desired workload as a batter and bowler. He batted and bowled in the nets and had a short close in slip catching drill on Monday. 

Matt Potts is the only change in the XI that defeated Pakistan by an inning and 47 runs last week as England have named an all-Durham seam attack. Potts played the first and second Tests against Sri Lanka at Manchester and Lord’s in August. 

Stokes and Potts come in place of Chris Woakes and Gus Atkinson, who have been rested. 

Despite Pakistan making their intentions clear of re-using the same surface for the penultimate Test, the visitors will be heading into the contest with a similar combination as the first test- three seamers and two spinners. 

Jack Leach and Shoaib Bashir are the names of the finger spinners that appear in the playings section of the nominations sheet before the toss as leg spinner Rehan Ahmed missed out on the second test. 

England became the first team under Stokes to hand Pakistan a 3-0 whitewash at home in 2022. Their maiden win over Pakistan, under stand-in skipper Ollie Pope, last week was fourth on the bounce. 

England XI: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes(c), Jamie Smith(wk), Brydon Carse, Matthew Potts, Jack Leach, Shoaib Bashir.