England announce playing XI for first Test against Pakistan

All-rounder Liam Livingstone is all set to make his Test debut as England have announced their starting lineup for the first Test of the historic three-match series against Pakistan which is scheduled to be played at Rawalpindi from 1st December. Will Jacks of Surrey was in line to get a place in the lineup but Livingstone has done away with the competition as he will provide England with a spin bowling option while batting at number eight.

Ben Duckett will start the batting alongside Zak Crawley, in what will be his first Test match since 2016, taking Alex Lees’ position. For the first time in 17 years, England will play Pakistan, in Pakistan. Following the 2009 shooting attack on the Sri Lanka team bus by gunmen, England avoided touring Pakistan. In September and October this year, they finally toured Pakistan for a seven-match T20I series, which they won 4-3.

Lancashire’s Livingstone, one of the top white-ball cricket players in the world, was a member of the England squad that clinched the T20 World Cup at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia earlier this month. Although he hasn’t participated in a first-class match since September 2021, he did participate in England’s warm-up match against the England Lions last week in Abu Dhabi, scoring 36 runs off of 23 balls and collecting two wickets.

Livingstone will become the 708th player to represent England in Test cricket, and skipper Ben Stokes stated his lack of experience with red-ball cricket won’t be a hindrance. England have maintained their lineup of six batters, and Ben Foakes as the wicketkeeper-batter at number seven, despite the addition of Livingstone.

“The skill he has with the ball and the way he plays with the bat is very aligned with the way we want to see the team play. I don’t necessarily think that not playing a red-ball game is going to be too much of a thing for him. He’s a very natural cricketer, he’s going to go out there and really express himself. I’m looking forward to seeing him in the whites. He did say when he got his white pads out of the bag ‘what are these?’,” said Stokes.

England XI for first Test vs Pakistan: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Ben Foakes (wk), Liam Livingstone, Jack Leach, Ollie Robinson, James Anderson.