Pakistan v England, 1st Test, Multan, 7-11 October, 2024

So the side is chosen, but I havnt seen it confirmed yet if it is taking place in Pakistan or UAE. Even Baz seemed unsure at the Oval. ATM tests are Multan, Karachi & Rawalpindi.

The injured return, Cox is preferred to Lawrence, spinners are Leach and bash as expected, and Rehan gets a return to the homeland. They are clearly sold on Hull, even though they would have done better prob to have had Potts at the oval, but he goes too, and carse the only real surprise, but he'll prob be unfit by October.

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

Emu ruled out… another sicknote fast bowler on our hands!

I'm appreciating the early posting of "next Test" threads.

Who is ‘emu’?

Josh Hull the leftarmer who played in the last test against S/L.

Yeah, from 70s/80s UK “entertainer” Rod Hull, who used his “Emu” hand puppet as a vehicle for assaulting celebrities (most famously chat show legend, cricket fan and chief Murali-hater Michael Parkinson).

That refs going back a bit. Is there anyone on here under 60?

Meanwhile both the first 2 tests are at Multan, so england will be there for over 2 weeks.

Don’t mind it going back … but maybe ‘emu’ never made it outside the UK? Not known to me at all.

Does this make Allan Lamb another Lewis FFS?

For the unenlightened among you, his “career highlight”…



I guess you Aussies are familiar with Parky at least, as per above you’d like his views on a certain spin “bowler”. He must have been about 70 when he coined the wonderfully childish “Muchichuckalot” which he used multiple times in newspaper columns.

Hmmm. If that's a 'highlight' ... it's no surprise that he didn't make a discernible splash here. I'm not going to claim to have watched a lot of Parkinson, but I did see a few of his exported shows, particularly enjoying his interviews with Mohammed Ali, Sir Les Patterson, and Billy Connolly.

Did he do well in the USA? Looks like the sort of 'humour' that would go well with canned laughter.

In more important news, Stokes may be out of the first Test.

Confirmed out, the Arse gets his Test debut, in what looks a strong lower order to make up for being a batting specialist light.

England XI for first Test against Pakistan: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope (captain), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith, Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Bryson Carse, Jack Leach, Shoaib Bashir.

Looks light in batting, although the pitch will probably be a road.

skully wrote:Looks light in batting, although the pitch will probably be a road.

I guess they're backing in Woakes and Atkinson as "semi-allrounders"

They've both made test 100s, so that's reasonable!

On the Multan Highway, possible a safe bet.

Pakistan side

Saim Ayub, Abdullah Shafique, Shan Masood (c), Babar Azam, Saud Shakeel, Mohammad Rizwan, Salman Ali Agha, Aamir Jamal, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah, Abrar Ahmed.

wonder how many tests have started on a monday? I would have thought in islamic state like pak theyd all start on saturday or sunday to avoid friday prayers. scheduling a test for mon-fri seems to guarentee a very low turnout.

The organisers probably don't expect it to go to day 5.

In Pakistan? I don't think there is a more likely Test location in the world more likely to have 5 day Test matches.

The pitch will last. Not so sure about the batting sides.

lardbucket wrote:The pitch will last. Not so sure about the batting sides.

not sure about the bowlers, but nothing an ice bath and a Fanta won't fix.

Well done Shan Masood. Pakistan batting well.

Don't collapse!!

I guess England will be chuffed to have Pakistan 4 down, after they got to 1-261.

You’d think so. Good comeback in the final session. Pakistan need 600 plus to be in this. Saud Shakeel, Rizwan, and Agha Salman need to make 300 between them.

Pakistan start steadily, the night watchman Naseem has done his job and survived a few overs at the start of day 2 as a bonus.

Another good day for Pakistan though they won’t make 560, let alone 600.

Pope now sits at 0 from 13 DRS reviews.