The Sports Buff ⚽️ ⚾️ 🏈

England captain Ben Stokes has confirmed he will be absent for the first test against Pakistan after losing his fitness battle. Vice-captain Ollie Pope, who filled in for Stokes in the Sri Lanka series, continues to deputise for the all-rounder.

Brydon Carse will replace England captain Ben Stokes for this game. Other than that, the tourists should be near full strength. Liam Lawrence, who had a difficult Sri Lanka tour, didn’t make the touring party.

As for hosts Pakistan, they would only be who they are if they had drama before preparing for a big test series. Although this is the red-ball format, the white-ball format captain, Babar Azam, has announced his resignation from the role for a second time.

Azam will be available for the test side, but the supporting cast around Babar is the cause for concern. Of late, even Babar Azam himself has been in ominous form in the test arena.

In Pakistan’s last series, Mohammed Rizwan and Salman Agha showed some grit with bat to try and find some positives. With the greatest respect to Bangladesh, England have an excellent attack and will ask different questions about what their Bengali counterparts did.

In terms of how the series will pan out, I see England winning, but maybe not a whitewash. Pakistan will lose the series 2-1, but at least Shaan Masood will end his winless run as captain.

You can prepare for the new season by purchasing your club’s replica football shirt.

Visit Jersey 4 and use my unique code AYYAZTHEBEARDED to get a further 10% off a heavily discounted football shirt.

They stock club football shirts, International shirts, retro football shirts, training tops and more.

https://jerseys4all.com/?ref=AYYAZTHEBEARDED

Here at the-sports-buff.com, we have enjoyed serving you, the readers. Thank you for your support and feedback. We aim to grow, and we need your help.

We need your support as we look to grow our team further and improve our site. We would appreciate it if you could donate as little or as much as you can to help our site grow so it can be one of the pioneers of sports that we know it can be.