England vs Pakistan, 1st Test Day 1 Live Updates: England skipper Joe Root won the toss and opted to bowl against Pakistan in the first Test of the three-match series on Wednesday at Headingley, Leeds. Pakistan are touring England for the first time since 2020 and the host appear vulnerable after losing the home series against New Zealand in June. ( Live Scorecard ) In this match, Pakistan will be without the services of their captain Babar Azam , who has been ruled out due to a hand injury.
Babar was struck on the middle finger of his right hand while batting against the West Indies this month, and hit again in a warmup game last week in Beckenham. Salman Agha will captain the Test team for the first time.
After settling for a 1-1 draw in the West Indies, Pakistan need their experienced pacer Mohammad Abbas and the pace attack to hit the ground running to challenge the hosts. Babar’s captaincy 2.0 started with Pakistan’s recent tour of West Indies. For 5 years, the combination of Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum tried to redefine the way England should play. Out of 43 matches as a long-term Test skipper (Stokes had captained a solitary match in 2020 as a stand-in one), the team won 24 matches. 17 of the remaining 19 were losses. Hence, while the era was exciting to watch, a roughly 50-50 success rate is not what the management would have envisaged. There is Jofra Archer around as well, but his injury management means that he usually plays only 50-60 per cent of the Tests in a series. Team form (Last 5 completed Tests, recent first) – Eng – LLWLW | Pak – WLLLL. The last Test played at this venue was in 2025, between India and England, where all four innings registered totals in excess of 350, with the hosts making a mockery of a run chase of 371, winning it with 5 wickets to spare. One thing has shown consistency though – the pitches tend to get better from Day 2 onwards. The last 7 matches have seen teams win bowling first, so one can expect the captain winning the toss to do the same here. Additionally, Pakistan have won only two Tests here, out of 11 played – 1 way back in 1987 against England, and the other being against Australia, with Leeds chosen as the neutral venue, in 2010. Going further, England have won their last 6 Tests at this venue, with their last defeat here coming against West Indies in 2017. If there is decent seam movement, this should be a good outing for their seamers, which could keep the match in the balance – especially with showers forecast on the first 3 days.
As a result, the news is that BABAR AZAM HAS BEEN RULED OUT OF THE FIRST TEST. However, by going in with Agha, purely due to his white-ball credentials, the Pakistan management might be hinting towards the future. Because there is a fair bit of inexperience in the squad, the new regime will start with the old guy, so, like a change in government, the management has decided to change the skipper and the coach, but.
Bowling looking better – Another issue with the Bazball era was that the pitches were made so flat in England that the bowlers barely got any purchase from the surface once the ball lost its swing. Pakistan stepping up without Babar – For Pakistan, the immediate challenge is adapting quickly after regular skipper Babar Azam was sidelined with a hand injury. Stand-in captain Salman Agha must inspire his top order to show resilience against the moving Duke ball. The tourists will take immense confidence from Saud Shakeel’s fine hundred in the warm-up fixture and Shan Masood’s return to fitness. A new future, with legendary rivalry – Those were the days. The Fab Five were they called. Steve Smith. Kane Williamson. Joe Root. Babar Azam. Virat Kohli. Tune into a match featuring any of these legends, and more often than not, you were guaranteed a great knock. Then, with time, things started to change. Two of those legends retired, which now leaves us with the remaining three – Smith, Root and Babar. Curiously, all five of these legends assumed captaincy and then, with time, all of those stepped down as well. But now, with a fair bit of turmoil in both England and Pakistan cricket, Joe Root and Babar Azam have been assigned the leadership roles once again, in the hope of setting the pathway for a new bright future. And the first assignment in that role, as far as Root is concerned, is a Test series between England and Pakistan. But… Babar? Oh dear. The match has not even started, but has the commentator’s curse already been applied? In that tour of the Caribbean, Babar sustained an injury on his right hand, while batting in the second Test. And to remind him that fate can be cruel sometimes, Azam got struck on the same area in Pakistan’s warm-up game! Salman Agha has been chosen as the stand-in captain for this Test. First match as captain – Well, with Azam not fit, the possible options were Shan Masood, the recent ex captain, who himself is trying to recover from a fractured finger after a blow in the first Test against West Indies. The second was Mohammad Rizwan, if the management wanted to play safe. May not be immediate, but certainly a step in that direction. Pakistan’s batting a concern- As always. Since the retirement of greats like Inzamam and Mohd. Yousuf, there has been a lack of reliability in the batting lineup. Only Babar and Rizwan have shown reasonable consistency and given how the Dukes ball moves around in English conditions, only batters with strong technique can survive here. From the current squad, Abdullah Shafique and Saud Shakeel have exhibited glimpses of excellent footwork and technique, but eventually, the results are not that consistent. The rest of the batting lineup is fairly new and as always, the load is going to fall on Babar and Rizwan. Or, in this case, solely Rizwan. Strong bowling attack – That’s one department which has always been throwing up excellent talent from Pakistan, despite the retirement of legends like Wasim, Waqar, Aaqib and Shoaib. We can just go on and on. Mohammad Abbas could be their leading strike force here, and even though he does not have enough pace, he can be what Chris Woakes has been for England over the years. Mohammad Ali and Khurram Shahzad are gelling in nicely too. The spin department is looking slightly inexperienced but given the conditions, one assumes that one spinner would be more than enough here and Sajid should do a decent job. A new era – It is always difficult to establish a new regime with old players. They managed to be successful in the shorter versions of the game, but the longer one has been hit and miss. Not to mention, two away Ashes debacles were involved as well. With many players from the squad having been used to playing under Stokes’ style, what will be the mantra of Root and the new coach – Stephen Fleming? Do they tweak the style or just get a new style of their own? Hence, while we saw scores being made at a brisk rate by the batters, and high fourth-innings totals, the flat pitches made life easier for the opposition batters too, whose bowlers were better than the hosts in the latter’s backyard. However, with time, England have found some decent pacers again, in the form of Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Ollie Robinson and Josh Tongue. Still, against an inexperienced opposition batting lineup, the improving fast bowling stocks of the hosts will feel a lot more confident. High-scoring encounter to start? A really intriguing pitch awaits us for the start of the series. However, batting has been fairly difficult at this venue, as the pitches usually offer good pace and bounce. There is significant seam movement on offer as well, but given the disparity in the last two Tests here, it is pretty difficult to expect what could be on offer. Hosts start as favourites – At least, on paper. Given the injury concerns in Pakistan’s camp. So the numbers are stacking up against the tourists, but that’s what Pakistan bring with them – the unexpected.
