Then captain Stokes dramatically announced his retirement from international cricket during the third Test against New Zealand at Trent Bridge in June, the all-rounder bowing out after a comprehensive 160-run defeat. An under-pressure England head into their first Test since the exits of Bazball architects Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum when they face Pakistan at Headingley in a match starting Wednesday. McCullum was sacked as England’s Test coach following the team’s seventh red-ball loss in nine matches, although he remains in charge of the white-ball sides.
“We won the last game against the West Indies, we played really good cricket and we will try to win this series,” Abbas said Monday of a Pakistan side seventh in the Test rankings compared to England’s fifth place.
Joe Root, who begins his second stint as full-time captain having been Stokes’s predecessor as skipper, said he would not “rip up” the playbook but look to “tweak” the team’s approach. “I could get a pair, but that’s not the end of the world,” Cox, who made his Test debut against New Zealand as a number seven in June, told the BBC. Root was reappointed when England decided against having white-ball captain Harry Brook lead the country in all three international formats. New Test coach Stephen Fleming — like McCullum a former New Zealand captain — will not take over until the tour of South Africa later this year. Cox hopes advice he received from India batting great Virat Kohli, his team-mate at IPL side Royal Challengers Bengaluru, will keep him on an even keel.
