England v Pakistan - Test Match & T20 Series 2020

England Have named an unchanged 14 man squad for the 1st Test against Pakistan which starts on Wednesday 5th August at Old Trafford. It comprises of the 11 players from the 3rd Test against West Indies, plus Zac Crawley, Sam Curran & Mark Wood.

Really looking forward to this test.
Pakistan's bowlers will be a real challenge for the England batting line up.

1st Test Old Trafford
Pakistan won the toss & elected to bat
Pakistan 121-1 (41.1 overs) Rain stopped play

A wicket apiece for Archer & Woakes before lunch, followed by an unbroken 3rd wicket partnership between opener Shan Masood 45 no & Baber Azam 52 no.

Pakistan 139-2 (49 overs) Close Masood 46 no Azam 69 no
Bad light forced Root to bowl himself & Bess, but eventually deteriorated despite the slow bowlers being used.

Pakistan

Lunch Day 2
Pakistan 187-5 (75 overs)
It took a decent ball from Anderson to dismiss the classy Barbar Azam for 69. Masood escaped a close lbw call from Broad, but he has battled well in the mold of an old-fashioned opener, leaving the ball well, defending the good balls & putting away anything loose. England bowlers game very little away & have a 2nd new ball available in 5 overs. I would expect Shadab to play some shots if he gets in.

Pakistan all out 326.

Pakistan 326 (109.3 overs) Masood 156 Babar 69 Shadab 45 Broad 3-54 Archer 3-59
England 92-4 (28 overs) Pope 46 no Abbas 2-24

Same story for England in the middle session. Bowl 5 overs of spin up to the 2nd new ball & gave easy runs. Masood & Shadab added 105 for the 6th wicket. Pakistan's exciting bowlers had England in trouble at 12-3, before Root & Popo added 50. Root tried to cut a ball that was to close to him off the bowling of Yasir Shah & the keeper Rizwan took an excellent catch. Pakistan well on top.

Day 3 1st Test Old Trafford
England 159-5 Pope 62 Butler 38 no
Only 67 runs were added in the 24 overs up to lunch

Butler is proving to be a liablity behind the stumps. 3 missed chances which cost at least 150 runs.

We need to bring in a new keeper so Butler has to prove himself as a top 5 batsman or he's out.