Pakistan return to England for a Test series, chasing a result they last managed in 1996
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Pakistan are set to tour England for a three-match Test series beginning on August 19, and former captain Rashid Latif has offered the team management an unusual piece of advice: keep the current captain, Babar Azam, away from the English media.
Babar was reinstated as Test captain ahead of Pakistan's recently concluded series against the West Indies, taking the role back from Shan Masood. Latif's suggestion is that Masood be sent out to face reporters instead. Speaking on a television programme, he said an England tour is a difficult assignment and that the English media often tries to involve visiting teams in news stories unnecessarily. Babar is an experienced player, he said, but Masood has played in England and has better experience of handling the media there.
This is Pakistan's first Test series in England since 2020, when England won the rubber 1-0. The longer record is the more striking one. Pakistan have not won a Test series in England since 1996, and that victory was the third in a row: a five-Test series won 1-0 in 1987, a five-Test series won 2-1 in 1992, and then the 2-0 win in a three-Test series in 1996.
Despite that gap, Pakistan's recent record in the country is respectable. Over the past decade they have won three and drawn two of the nine Tests they have played in England.
England arrive at this series in transition. It is their first since the end of the Stokes and McCullum era. Ben Stokes announced his retirement at the end of a three-Test home series against New Zealand, which England lost 2-1, and Brendon McCullum was sacked as Test coach shortly afterwards, though he continues in charge of the white-ball setup.
Joe Root has been reinstated as captain, a role he held before Stokes took over. The new head coach is Stephen Fleming, a former New Zealand teammate of McCullum's.
Why it matters
Away Test records are one of the cleaner measures in sport, because they strip out the advantages of familiar conditions and home crowds. Pakistan's thirty-year gap since a series win in England, set against a decent match-by-match record over the last decade, is a good example of how series results and individual match results can tell different stories. The English side of it is a case study in sporting transition: a captain retired, a coach dismissed, and a predecessor brought back, all before a home series begins.
Test yourself
1. When does Pakistan's Test series in England begin?
2. What advice did Rashid Latif give the team management?
3. Whom did Babar Azam replace as Test captain?
4. When did Pakistan last win a Test series in England?
5. What was the result of Pakistan's 2020 Test series in England?
6. What is Pakistan's record in England over the past decade?
7. Why is this England's first series of a new era?
8. Who has been reinstated as England's Test captain?
9. Who is England's new head coach?
10. Which series did England lose 2-1 before Stokes retired?
Your notes
Source: The Indian Express