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Match facts

November 25-29, 2016
Start time 1100 local (2200 GMT)1:26

Even contest ahead where Pakistan will look to put spinners to use – but for them to do that, the game must last long enough

Big Picture

While tawny Asian pitches can still prompt outrage and consternation, tracks coloured a lurid, nausea-inducing green have quietly become a New Zealand trademark. The response from most touring sides has been perfectly even-handed. “These are their home conditions,” is the consensus. “We just have to play on what we get.”On the eve of the Test, Hamilton’s track has as much grass as the pitch did in Christchurch, and as the air is warmer up north, the ball may swing more here, as well as seam. Word around the ground is that the toss may also prove significant; teams that have won it in the last four Tests have inserted the opposition. They have always wound up victorious.It is the batting that gave Pakistan most cause for concern in Christchurch and, as can often be the case with batsmen in unfamiliar conditions, they veered between extreme approaches – too loose in the first innings, too tight in the second. Now they are preaching the “get runs, before the good ball gets you” philosophy that has recently found credence on tough tracks. They will also want to take the game deep – it is legspinner Yasir Shah who has most consistently wrenched matches open for them, and it is the quality of his spin that marks the visitors’ clearest advantage over New Zealand.The hosts are without Trent Boult for the first time in over three years, but have the firepower of Matt Henry sliding in to replace him. With a win behind them, and a damp surface underfoot again, banished is talk of the dusty whitewash in India, even if the batsmen haven’t all reclaimed their form just yet.They remain wary of Pakistan’s propensity to work out foreign conditions, and hit back after losses, but will be happier with the forecast than the visitors. Rain is expected on the first day, and may continue, in patches, all through the weekend. Less sunshine, means less evaporation, means less turn off the pitch for Yasir.

Form guide

(last five completed matches, most recent first)

 New Zealand: WLLLL
Pakistan: LLWWW

In the spotlight

Tim Macintosh, Jamie How, Peter Ingram, Martin Guptill, Hamish Rutherford, Michael Papps, Craig Cumming – just pick any Anglo-Saxon first name and there will have been a modest New Zealand opener that answered to it, over the last ten years. The latest man to take guard is Gujarat-born Jeet Raval. Stylish and composed in his debut outing, and emerging with the highest match aggregate on a difficult pitch, Raval knows Pakistan will have better plans for him in this Test. If he is effective again in Hamilton, he will raise hopes that he can break the great New Zealand openers’ curse.The quality of Yasir Shah’s spin marks Pakistan’s clearest advantage over New Zealand•AFP

With long-term collaborator Misbah-ul-Haq now out of the picture, the middle-order batting/recovery responsibilities fall heavily on the shoulders of Younis Khan. There are mild whispers he is no longer his old self on sporting pitches, but surely this is premature; the man has scores of 218 and 127 and 51 in his last seven innings. Nevertheless, such is life in international sport when you reach a certain age. Pakistan will look to him for leadership in this match. After three consecutive single-figure scores, Younis will want a big score more than anyone.

Teams news

In addition to Henry, Mitchell Santner appears likely to play – displacing Todd Astle. The top order will likely remain unchanged after Ross Taylor was cleared to play.New Zealand (probable) 1. Jeet Raval, 2 Tom Latham, 3 Kane Williamson (capt.), 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Henry Nicholls, 6 Colin de Grandhomme, 7 BJ Watling (wk), 8 Mitchell Santner, 9 Tim Southee, 10 Neil Wagner, 11 Matt HenryOn a spicy surface, Pakistan have hinted they prefer Mohammad Rizwan over Sharjeel Khan. As a bonus, Rizwan can also fit into the middle order without causing changes elsewhere. Rahat Ali took 4 for 62 in the first innings at Christchurch, but looks likeliest to miss out if Wahab Riaz enters the fray.Pakistan (probable) 1 Sami Aslam, 2 Azhar Ali (capt.), 3 Babar Azam, 4 Younis Khan, 5 Mohammad Rizwan, 6 Asad Shafiq, 7 Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), 8 Wahab Riaz, 9 Yasir Shah, 10 Mohammad Amir, 11 Sohail Khan

Pitch and conditions

Green and damp on this occasion, Hamilton has seen bounce, turn, reverse swing and conventional swing, at different points over the past few years, so it is difficult to know what to expect. Unless rain washes out several sessions, a result appears likely, though.

Stats and trivia

• Until this match, Trent Boult had not missed a New Zealand Test since early 2012 – he had played in 44 on the trot.
• New Zealand have lost three of their last five Tests at Seddon Park – they beat West Indies and Sri Lanka, and lost to Australia, Pakistan and South Africa
• Mohammad Amir’s 3 for 43 in the first innings at Hagley Oval was his best analysis since his return from suspension.
• Pakistan have not lost a series since August 2014, when they were defeated 0-2 in Sri Lanka


Quotes

“I think it will swing more in Hamilton than in Christchurch, with the humidity.””Younis has gone through a lot of times in his career like this – when he hasn’t scored runs in the first match, but he always bounces back.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details4:46

O’Brien: NZ batsmen didn’t read the pitch right

Sharing the new ball in conditions that initially encouraged seam and swing, Hardik Pandya and Umesh Yadav ran through New Zealand’s top order to set India up for a six-wicket win in the first ODI in Dharamsala. From 65 for 7, New Zealand recovered to post a relatively respectable total thanks to Tom Latham, who became the tenth batsman to carry his bat through an ODI innings, and Tim Southee, who struck a 45-ball 55 at No. 10, but a target of 191 was never really going to test India.Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma got India off to a solid start with a 49-run opening stand, and Virat Kohli took over thereafter, as he does so often in chases big and small, and his unbeaten 81-ball 85, full of trademark cover drives – the straight-bat punched variety as well as the wristy flat-bat swishes – guided India home with 101 balls remaining. He brought up the winning runs with a cleanly struck six off Ish Sodhi, skipping out of his crease and clattering the sightscreen behind the bowler.Sent in to bat, New Zealand would have been disappointed to get bowled out with 37 balls still remaining in their innings. There was swing early on, a bit of seam movement, and a tendency for the ball to stop on the batsmen occasionally, but nothing so devilish in the conditions to cause their top order to collapse so rapidly.Opting to bowl first, India sprang a bit of a surprise by handing Hardik Pandya the new ball ahead of Jasprit Bumrah, but the allrounder soon showed why MS Dhoni may have taken this decision.Fifteen minutes before the toss, Pandya had received his ODI cap from Kapil Dev. He may also have absorbed some lessons about new-ball bowling from the great man: where he has bowled predominantly short in his 16 T20Is so far, Pandya here pitched the ball up and swung it away from the right-handers, while consistently hitting the high 130s.Having produced two edges and a play-and-miss from Martin Guptill in his first over, Pandya broke through with one that straightened towards off stump, forcing the batsman to play from the crease and nick to second slip.Then, Umesh Yadav removed New Zealand’s two most accomplished batsmen. Kane Williamson slashed the last ball of his third over to third man; then, off the first ball of his fourth over, Ross Taylor, late to withdraw his bat from the line of the ball, edged a perfectly-pitched outswinger to the keeper.India frustrated Corey Anderson by bowling into his body and denying him room to free his arms, and he made 4 off 13 before seeing a rare glimpse of width and flat-batting Pandya uppishly to the right of mid-off, where Umesh completed a stunning diving catch. The same combination of bowler and fielder then sent back Luke Ronchi, who flicked in the air to mid-on.When Kedar Jadhav, given the ball for the first time in his ODI career, sent back James Neesham and Mitchell Santner with successive deliveries in the 19th over, New Zealand’s innings seemed unlikely to last beyond the 30th over.Watching all this from the non-striker’s end, Latham may have felt slightly puzzled, because he had looked utterly at ease at the crease, playing close to his body, and driving crisply through the covers and down the ground. He needed someone to stay with him. Doug Bracewell did that for 45 balls before flicking Amit Mishra to short midwicket, helping New Zealand past 100, before Southee arrived at the crease.He could have been out for 2, but Umesh let him off by dropping a straightforward chance at fine leg after he had skied a pull off Bumrah. Southee thanked Umesh and hit two fours in the same over, off the unfortunate Bumrah, punching him on the up through the covers and pulling him through midwicket.He then skipped down the pitch to Mishra and lofted him inside-out over the covers before launching the first six of his innings, off Axar Patel, over long-off. Before this match, Southee had hit a six every 24 balls, roughly, in his international career. This one came off his 25th ball, evidence of the restraint he had shown initially.He hit two more sixes on his way to his maiden ODI half-century before skying Mishra to cover in the 42nd over. By then, he had scored 55 out of a partnership of 71 for the ninth wicket. With only No. 11 left for company, Latham went after Mishra, chipping him inside-out for four and slog-sweeping him for six off successive balls, but the innings wasn’t to last too much longer. Almost as soon as he had Ish Sodhi in his sights, Mishra trapped him on the crease with one that hurried on straight, legspinner foxing legspinner.

The durability of the pink ball and its visibility under lights remain concerns for some of the players who featured in the recently-concluded Duleep Trophy. They felt the experiment needed to be carried out further in domestic cricket before India could host its first day-night Test match.In the first match of the tournament, between India Red and India Green, the ball largely passed the visibility test, but the success came with a caveat: the game was played on a grassy pitch and lush outfield.In fact, players admitted to being surprised by how the ball retained its glaze for long periods, and even complained that it took reverse-swing, an integral aspect of seam bowling in subcontinental conditions, out of play. The main issue that came up during the first two games was the ball going out of shape and having to be changed frequently.In the later stages of the tournament, the BCCI decided to try the pink ball on drier and more abrasive pitches more akin to conditions usually found in India. This time the ball didn’t just lose shape, but also colour. India Red’s Abhinav Mukund, who scored a half-century and a century in the first match, said he faced difficulty in sighting the ball once it lost its sheen.”That [visibility under lights] is a big factor,” Abhinav told ESPNcricinfo. “When it is scuffed up, the colour of the ball goes from pink to greyish. When you apply any natural substance on it, like sweat or saliva, it becomes black-ish. And when it hits the boundary ropes, it becomes even more grey-ish and then you have to change the ball.”Dinesh Karthik, who scored 55 in India Blue’s first innings in the final, said he couldn’t pick the scuffed-up ball, and had to ask the umpires to take a look and possibly consider changing it. “I faced Nathu [Singh] and I didn’t pick a couple of balls,” Karthik said. “I couldn’t especially see a full-toss that took the edge of the bat and went for a boundary. I went and asked the umpire and he had a look and realised that the ball was scuffed up and it was really hard to pick.”Both Abhinav and Karthik acknowledged the difficulty in spotting the seam, especially when the wristspinners were bowling. Cheteshwar Pujara, who scored an unbeaten 256 in the final, also mentioned this during the presentation ceremony, saying he had found it harder ot pick the googly.It became quite evident when India Red’s Gurkeerat Singh and Stuart Binny were trying to hit their way out of trouble in the final against the spinners, often struggling to pick Karn Sharma’s googly. Neither batsman, despite scoring half-centuries, was fully in control, and often stepped out of the crease to neutralise the break.As a solution to the problem, Abhinav suggested that the colour of the seam be changed from black to something brighter. “Maybe a different kind of leather, and a different colour of seam – maybe neon or something? Also, maybe you can change the ball at 60 overs instead of 80 overs.”India Blue seamer Pankaj Singh felt replacing the scuffed-up ball owing to poor visibility took reverse-swing out of play. “On [dry] wickets like these [in the final], you try to get the batsman out by reversing the ball, but whether this ball will reverse is difficult [to say],” he said. “If this ball deteriorates or scuffs up too much it has to be changed and if doesn’t scuff you can’t reverse it.”Left-arm wristspinner Kuldeep Yadav, who finished as the tournament’s leading wicket-taker with 17 scalps from three games, said the pink ball drifted and dipped, but didn’t turn much. India Blue coach and former India offspinner Aashish Kapoor felt negating the impact of the dew would be the biggest factor in determining the future of day-night Test cricket in India.”In India cricket is a winter sport. If Test matches are going to be held during winter and dew comes in, it’s a big factor,” Kapoor said. “People keep talking but unless you play you don’t realise how wet the ball it gets – it is like a soap bar in your hands. If in a Test match, you are going to play three hours under lights when the dew comes in at 6 or 7 [pm], and you are having a soap bar, your bowlers are out for three out of the six hours of the game.”Gautam Gambhir, the India Blue captain, cited his team-mate Pujara’s experience while suggesting that the ball changed its behaviour under lights. “Pujara thought it behaves differently during the day-time and it behaves differently during the night, especially with the pace of the ball and the ball skidding through [for the seamers],” he said. “The conditions change completely when the game starts at 2 pm, and obviously the conditions are completely different when the artificial lights take over.”Karthik concurred with Gambhir’s view, and said the ball felt heavier while he kept wicket under lights. “During the day, the ball feels a little lighter when it hits the glove, and it doesn’t actually sting as much,” he said. “But, in the evening I did realise that even though there has not been much dew, the ball for some strange reason gets that much harder and hits the glove a little harder for the medium pacers. That’s why you can see there has been a template where short balls have got wickets in the last session because I think the ball skids on a little more.”In the final, Pankaj’s two-wicket burst early in India Red’s first innings featured deliveries that skidded off the surface quicker than expected, under lights. Both Abhinav and Sudip Chatterjee were beaten for pace, and it didn’t appear that the cracks on the pitch had much to do with either dismissal.The ball used for the Duleep Trophy was the pink Kookaburra. Karthik said there was a case for SG, which manufactures the ball used in India’s first-class and Test cricket, developing a pink ball for Indian conditions. “If they can come up with a pink ball which is more suited to Indian conditions, which I am sure they will start trying in time, it will be interesting to see how that ball compares to the pink Kookaburra,” he said. “A red SG ball has more to offer in Indian conditions than a red Kookaburra; the same could be the case with the pink ball.”While night cricket isn’t an uncommon phenomenon for most Indian cricketers, the likes of Robin Uthappa have found playing at night for four or five days in a row physically taxing. “If I had to make a suggestion, if we could play the game more towards the evening, that would make the game more even-stevens,” Uthappa said during the first game between India Red and India Green. “If we can have a specific stop-time… and if you have lost time make sure you start earlier. What I have noticed it is the boys get tired; generally we play from 9.30 [am] to 4.30 [pm], and we have a few hours before going to sleep. In this format, you don’t have time for recovery.”Karthik echoed Uthappa’s views and said playing a day-night Ranji Trophy match, which the BCCI has proposed, would make for an interesting challenge. “Right now we are probably sleeping at midnight and waking up at 10 -10:30 am,” Karthik said. “For that one [day-night] game we can do that, but when you go to the next venue you go to the normal game and you wake up at 6- 6:30 [am] to get ready. So, these are the challenges you need to get accustomed to.”Karthik, however, felt pink-ball cricket was here to stay given the spectator interest it drew – the attendances were upwards of 3000 steadily through the tournament. “If the crowds are a yardstick to go by in day-night matches, we should give that box a tick. I think it is a great way to bring crowds in.”

ScorecardBen Raine finished with 5 for 66•Getty Images

Derbyshire put themselves in a position to secure their first championship win of the season after turning the tables on Leicestershire on the third day of the second division match at the Fischer County Ground.The visitors’ lower order and tail batted with huge determination in the first half of the day, ensuring Leicestershire’s first innings advantage was just 18, before the bowlers picked up five wickets to leave the Foxes leading by only 127 with five second innings wickets in hand at the close.Resuming on 199 for 6, Alex Hughes and Alex Mellor, the latter making his first-class debut, batted without giving a chance in raising a 50 partnership for the seventh wicket. Having done so, however, and with a personal half-century within reach, Hughes had his off stump knocked out by Richard Jones, the delivery keeping a touch low as it burst through the batsman’s defences.Mellor continued to acquit himself impressively, showing an admirably calm temperament in the fact of testingly straight bowling before being bowled off the inside edge by Ben Raine.Tom Milnes and Tony Palladino added another 39 for the eighth wicket before Milnes became the fifth Derbyshire batsman in the innings to be bowled, albeit off an inside edge.Callum Parkinson, another making his first class debut, had already impressed with his left-arm spin, picking up four wickets in Leicestershire’s first innings, but the 19-year-old showed he can also bat, giving Palladino good support as the last-wicket pair took the attack to the Leicestershire bowlers in the extra half hour.Parkinson hit 32, from just 39 balls, as the 50 partnership was raised just before the break, and the pair extended the last wicket partnership to 73 before Palladino edged Raine to O’Brien.Raine finished with 5 for 66, his best return of the season.With their confidence boosted by their efforts with the bat, Derbyshire’s seamers made early inroads. Milnes bowled Angus Robson in the first over for a duck with a full delivery, and Palladino had Paul Horton caught at second slip in the following over to leave the Foxes struggling on 1 for 2.Neil Dexter and Mark Cosgrove added 29 for the third wicket before Dexter was given out leg before half forward to Milnes, umpire Rob Bailey deciding the ball had hit pad before bat, to reduce the Foxes to 30-3, a lead of just 48.Mark Pettini took 24 balls to get off the mark, but together with Cosgrove then steadied the ship, adding 73 for the fourth wicket before Cosgrove, on 49, edged a delivery from Shiv Thakor which stayed a little low into his stumps.No further runs had been added when Parkinson straightened one into Pettini as the right-hander stretched forward, and won the leg before decision.

In four completed Tests at the Pallekele Stadium, Sri Lanka have never been winners. In the only matches that reached a fourth innings, chasing sides have found no terrors on the pitch, particularly when Pakistan ran down 377 in the most recent Test at the venue.With 185 more runs to get and seven wickets in hand, Australia batting coach Stuart Law is hoping the trend continues. Both teams were shot out for relatively modest first-innings totals, but counter to what is usually believed about Asian surfaces, Law said batting had become easier since then.”It’s not going to be a day-five pitch,” he said. “We have played like three days thanks to the rain and light interruptions. History says that teams have chased big totals here before. Those pitches might have been prepared differently than for us, coming in.”This pitch doesn’t look like deteriorating a great deal. If you look at the footmarks, big Mitchell Starc has been bowling left-arm over, and has hardly broken the surface. It’s hard as concrete and it’s very dry. Overnight these conditions do tend to get the moisture back up into the surface. The first half-hour to an hour, can be tricky. But the wicket drying up shouldn’t be a problem. The first two days it was tacky in the mornings. But it’s progressively dried out, and is probably at its driest now.”But it is exactly that lack of moisture that Sri Lanka will hope their spinners will be able to exploit on day five. Several deliveries took sharp turn on day four – particularly Lakshan Sandakan’s stock ball to dismiss Joe Burns – and with three frontline spinners in his XI, Sri Lanka coach Graham Ford hoped the seven wickets would be forthcoming.”I think we’ve fought really hard to get ourselves into a situation when we can win this Test match,” he said. “Pleasingly, a few balls started to turn quite sharply before the players came off for bad light. Hoping tomorrow that a few things will go our way, and we’ll be able to press home.”Ford also said Sri Lanka would have been “in the driving seat” had the lbw decision against Adam Voges been upheld. Voges had been given out when rapped on the pad first ball by Dilruwan Perera, but projections showed that ball to be missing leg stump. Voges remains at the crease with Steven Smith, and the two are reputed to be Australia’s best players of spin.”They are class players and their records are outstanding,” Ford said. “The partnership is crucial and if we can break it in the morning – who knows what can happen? Day-five pitch – I know it hasn’t had a full four days on it, but it is a wearing wicket. One just has to misbehave, and that can break a partnership.”Law agreed that the overnight stand was a crucial one. “The two guys who are batting at the moment need to put up a good partnership,” he said. “Everyone else has to chip in where they can. We are still confident. We always want to play to win and not to draw.”

Match facts

July 14-18, 2016
Start time 11am local (1000 GMT)

Big Picture

How big do you like your pictures? It took Michelangelo four years, from 1508 to 1512, to paint one of the biggest of the lot, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel – with its depictions of the rise and fall of man, and all that malarky. Well, it’s been six years and counting since Mohammad Amir succumbed to temptation at Lord’s in 2010, and tomorrow, he launches his bid for redemption at the scene of his original sin, with the full backing of a Pakistan team that has rarely seemed more focussed or united than they do at this potentially epochal moment of their history. This is a big picture, all right. One of the biggest that Test cricket could ever have conceived.All eyes will be on Amir, and rightly so, as he marches back out through the Long Room and down the pavilion steps to relaunch his Test career after the highest-profile hiatus imaginable – and memories of that abject August Sunday are sure to be recalled in gory detail as the contest begins to take shape. Nevertheless, the focus of both teams will be very much on the here-and-now – out of respect for the challenge in store, and doubtless for the sanity of the competitors as well.Pakistan have spoken at length about how they intend to close ranks around Amir and block out the “noise” that will surround his return to the fray, but England also have plenty of reasons to treat this occasion as ordinarily as possible. From Jake Ball, inked in for his Test debut at the age of 25, to Gary Ballance – back in the team after a year of exile and introspection – there will be enough emotion doing the rounds without getting caught up in the whys and where-fors in the opposition ranks.Besides, after a low-key start to England’s international summer, in which a rebuilding Sri Lanka team was put firmly in its place across all three formats, there is a distinct sense of occasion surrounding the arrival of Pakistan. They may not have won a Test series in England since 1996, but they have more regenerative properties than the T-3000, and under the leadership of Misbah-ul-Haq, they have gelled into one of the most consistent opponents in the world game.This is, as Misbah acknowledged last week, the ultimate challenge for a team that he has coaxed back to prominence over the past six years. All roads since the ignominy of the 2010 tour have led straight back to where it all began, and the diligence of their preparations – from their training camp in Lahore, to their acclimatisation at the Ageas Bowl, to the discipline of their practice sessions under the focussed eye of the new coach, Mickey Arthur – underlines the sense that they want this shot at redemption more than they have wanted any other challenge in recent times.We are about to find out whether Misbah’s men are ready and able to emulate the great Pakistan teams of the 1980s and 1990s. But, as with their forebears, there’s nothing like an underlying sense of grievance to galvanise one of world sport’s most naturally talented outfits. Whatever the size of the picture, it promises to be a spectacle.Mohammad Amir is ready for his shot at redemption•Getty Images

Form guide

England: DWWLW (last five completed matches, most recent first)

Pakistan: WWDWL

In the spotlight

Err … have a guess. Still, if we take it as read that Amir will hog every inch of the limelight in this contest, then the way is clear for his less conspicuous team-mates to thrive in his slip-stream. Not least his fellow left-armer, Wahab Riaz, who proved to be the single most significant difference between the teams in the recent series in the UAE. His searing pace on unforgiving surfaces returned little in the way of eye-catching figures – his best return of 4 for 66 came in the second Test at Dubai, but that included the prime scalps of Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler in a ferocious nine-over spell. No-one in England’s ranks can rival his out-and-out pace.Joe Root’s promotion to No.3 is the most eye-catching statement of intent from an England line-up that has had more than its fair share of top-order wobbles in recent times, but the recall of Gary Ballance at No.5 is the surprise move from the selectors. His technique has been put through the wringer since his glut of failings against New Zealand and Australia last year, but showing a commendable streak of stubbornness of which his captain, Alastair Cook, would no doubt approve, Ballance has resolved not to deconstruct his methods, but simply to apply them better. He returns to the fray with a proven track record, including four Test hundreds and an average of 47.76. He’s done it before, and can do it again.

Team news

The Nottinghamshire debutant, Jake Ball, has been confirmed as James Anderson’s replacement, after Alastair Cook revealed his hand on the eve of the contest – he edges out the Lord’s local, Toby Roland-Jones, for the final spot in the XI. Anderson himself is said by Cook (somewhat euphemistically, you suspect) to be “disappointed” not to be playing. Joe Root steps up to the hot seat at No.3, following Nick Compton’s failure to cement his place against Sri Lanka, while Ballance is back at No. 5, a full year after his last Test appearance on this same ground against Australia. Chris Woakes (illness) and Steven Finn (knee) have come through their respective niggles and will be fit for Thursday morning.England 1 Alastair Cook (capt), 2 Alex Hales, 3 Joe Root, 4 James Vince, 5 Gary Ballance, 6 Jonny Bairstow (wk), 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Stuart Broad, 10 Jake Ball, 11 Steven Finn.Pakistan can put forward an imposing and settled line-up, one that will be very familiar to England following their 2-0 loss in the UAE last winter, and one that has been significantly bolstered by the return of You Know Who. With Wahab and Yasir Shah ready to resume their leading roles, Rahat Ali and Imran Khan seem to be in a shoot-out for their fourth bowling slot. Imran might just have the edge, seeing as three left-armers might be overdoing it.Pakistan (probable) 1 Mohammad Hafeez, 2 Shan Masood, 3 Azhar Ali, 4 Younis Khan, 5 Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), 6 Asad Shafiq, 7 Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), 8 Wahab Riaz, 9 Mohammad Amir, 10 Rahat Ali / Imran Khan, 11 Yasir Shah.

Pitch and conditions

Stuart Broad has already expressed his fears about the state of the Lord’s wicket – a surface on which no side has yet managed to claim 20 wickets this season. Middlesex’s most recent fixture at Lord’s, against Lancashire two weeks ago, resulted in a mercy killing on the final day; rain washed out the contest with the scores entrenched on a towering 513 v 419 for 5. There is, at present, a green tinge to the surface, and the weather promises to be dry but overcast, which may offer some assistance to the quicks on either side. But Pakistan, with all their experience in the UAE and their traditional pace-and-legspin combination, may fancy their chances if the carry is as slow and low as anticipated.

Stats and trivia

• Pakistan have won three and lost five of their previous 14 Tests at Lord’s – including two crushing defeats on their last tour in 2010. One, of course, came in the aftermath of the spot-fixing saga, but the other – less-well-remembered – contest came earlier that summer, against Australia in the first neutral Test at the venue since 1912.
• Auspiciously for Pakistan, however, both of their last two wins at the venue came in their most recent series victories in England – in the heyday of Wasim and Waqar in 1992 and 1996. The 1992 victory, by two wickets, was one of the most thrilling in Lord’s illustrious history.
• At the age of 42 years and 47 days, Misbah-ul-Haq will be playing his first Test in England. With 20 wins in 42 Tests as captain, he is already Pakistan’s most successful captain, ahead of Imran Khan and Javed Miandad (both 14).
• Stuart Broad, in his 95th Test, needs five more wickets to become the 22nd bowler to take 350 Test wickets.

Quotes

“Unfortunately Jimmy’s missed out, it gives a great opportunity for Jake, one he’s really looking forward to. He’s had a great year with Notts and looks a fine bowler.”
Alastair Cook confirms that Ball is set to make his Test debut in place of England’s leading wicket-taker.“It’s an advantage if one of the main bowlers is missing. We feel ready. Preparation has been good. Everyone is ready to go.”