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2 hours ago
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Key events
Peter Walker writes in:
It will be interesting to see how Cox & Lawrence bat together. Essex nabbed Cox from Kent when Surrey nabbed Lawrence from Essex. Since that happened I would say that Essex got the better deal.
Ooh, I don’t know – it’s worked out well for everyone. Lawrence’s first-class record at Surrey is brilliant: 32 matches, 2,327 runs at 55.4, including nine hundreds.
Harry Brook’s wicket makes it Pakistan’s session. They’ve not looked all that sharp in the field but Mohammad Abbas has shown enough magic with the new ball, while Mohammad Rizwan took a cracking grab down the leg-side to get rid of Emilio Gay.
Lunch
Ali oversteps again, for the third time today, before launching a wild leg-before appeal against Dan Lawrence. It’s clearly going down the leg-side, even if Ali’s plea is passionate. It’s the two new boys (sort of) who must rescue England. But first: we must all eat.
18th over: England 80-4 (Lawrence 2, Cox 27)
WICKET! Brook b Ali 15 (England 77-4)
Bowled him! Huge for Pakistan! Mohammad Ali wobbles the ball into Harry Brook and gets some sharp movement to rattle the stumps!
17th over: England 77-3 (Brook 15, Cox 27) Mohammad Abbas is finally granted a rest. Khurram Shahzad has to lock in for the next few minutes and he keeps things quiet, conceding a single.
16th over: England 72-3 (Brook 14, Cox 27) Ali oversteps for the second time in his spell, suggesting he’s still trying to get to grips with his run-up. He surprises Cox with an in-ducker but the No 3 closes the over with a lush off-drive for four and a clip down the leg-side for another boundary. He’s on 27 off 26 balls.
15th over: England 66-3 (Brook 13, Cox 19) Abbas is into his eighth over as Rizwan comes up to the stumps … and Brook punches gracefully through point for four. Brook is still starting outside his crease with the keeper up before rocking back to play.
14th over: England 59-3 (Brook 8, Cox 19) It looks to me like Pakistan are just thinking of going stump-to-stump against Brook, who is easing the ball through leg-side when they go too straight.
13th over: England 57-3 (Brook 7, Cox 19) I’m not sure why Rizwan isn’t up to the stumps while Cox is batting against Abbas. The seamer squares Cox up … with an edge evading the cordon as it runs away for four. Cox continues to step out of his crease – again, why isn’t Rizwan up?
12th over: England 49-3 (Brook 6, Cox 12) Ali is too full and wide as Cox, who has looked calm from ball one, drives for four. Root, on the other hand, was surprisingly fidgety throughout his brief stay. Brook sees width and wildly slashes … at air. This should be a very watchable half-hour before lunch.
11th over: England 42-3 (Brook 4, Cox 7) Abbas greets Brook with a leg-stump gift, and the right-hander whips it away for four. The big problem for Pakistan? At some point they’re going to have to give their 36-year-old quick a rest.
WICKET! Root lbw Abbas 4 (England 36-3)
Abbas has Root leg-before! And he’s not reviewing it! Rizwan is up to the stumps and that keeps the batter stuck in the crease. Abbas wobbles it in, finds the back leg and the umpire’s finger. Imam, you may breathe. Time to see what Harry Brook does.
10th over: England 35-2 (Root 4, Cox 6) Mohammad Ali replaces Khurram Shahzad … and Imam-ul-Haq drops Root at third slip! Oh, what a miss that is. Ali finds outswing immediately and Root can’t resist the booming drive – Imam goes low and doesn’t hold on. You may as well write Root’s name on the honours board now.
9th over: England 31-2 (Root 1, Cox 5) Cox is getting down the pitch, presumably to negate Abbas’ movement with the wobble seam. The No 3 shuffles down before, rather comically, opting to leave. Pakistan make a change, with Rizwan coming up to the stumps to keep the batters in their crease.
8th over: England 29-2 (Root 0, Cox 4) Shahzad makes it through the over without conceding a boundary, but Cox does pull away for three. The action is at Abbas’ end.
7th over: England 26-2 (Root 0, Cox 1) Abbas and Pakistan are excited, a little too excited as they go up to review a leg-before shout against Joe Root. As DRS shows, Root was struck outside off-stump. Pakistan have found some energy, though.
WICKET! Duckett lbw Abbas 17 (England 26-2)
Jordan Cox, immediately, is keen to get down the pitch. He’s off the mark with a clip through the leg-side for one. And then a serious leg-before shout! Abbas nips it back into Duckett and the umpire says no. But this could be dangerous for Duckett … maybe just a question of height. No, it’s three reds, crashing into off stump! Abbas has his second of the day and his 900th first-class wicket!
6th over: England 25-1 (Duckett 17, Cox 0) That’ll be a really tough one to take for Gay, still finding his way in his first summer at this level. Shahzad continues to string together dots before the loose one creeps in – Duckett drives through the off-side for another boundary. Shahzad has conceded three boundaries from his three overs and nothing else.
WICKET! Gay c Rizwan b Abbas 8 (England 21-1)
Abbas finally has a look at Gay after bowling exclusively at Duckett. The veteran quick opts for a change of angle, going around the wicket, before switching back to over … Gay is left in a tangle as the ball nibbles away from him. And then a leg-side strangle! What a grab by Mohammad Rizwan! Abbas goes wayward and Gay gets some bat on it as Rizwan leaps to his right, holding on with one hand. Pakistan have had an iffy start but they’ve got a wicket, too.
5th over: England 21-1 (Duckett 13, Cox 0)
4th over: England 20-0 (Duckett 12, Gay 8) Shahzad offers up a four-ball … and Gay takes it at the start of the over. Five dots follow but Gay looks fairly comfortable against the right-armer.
3rd over: England 16-0 (Duckett 12, Gay 4) Abbas, bouncing in from the Nursery End, wobbles it past Duckett’s outside edge once again. But the left-hander is proactive, shuffling down the pitch to drive through mid-off for four. How long until Mohammad Rizwan is called to the stumps? A Duckett cut for four closes the over and Pakistan are already under the pump.
2nd over: England 8-0 (Duckett 4, Gay 4) Khurram Shahzad is up from the other end, around the wicket to Emilio Gay. The quick whizzes one past the outside edge … before presenting a half-volley. Gay leans into a lush drive through point for four.
1st over: England 4-0 (Duckett 4, Gay 0) Mohammad Abbas has the Dukes and a green Lord’s deck to play with. Pakistan have to strike early. Ben Duckett leaves a wide loosener to kick us off. Another loose delivery is punched for two before Abbas finds his spot, beating the outside edge with a wobble-seamer. Another corker soon follows, nibbling away from Duckett at 76mph. And then an edge … but the ball doesn’t carry to the cordon.
The anthems are done. Let’s get going.
I would imagine/hope that Mohammad Abbas has been watching highlights of himself on this ground eight years ago.
Pakistan win the toss and choose to bowl first
Finally, here we go. Babar Azam wins the toss and decides to bowl first. Time for Mohammad Abbas to nibble it around. Pakistan being Pakistan, they’ve dropped the guy who captained them last week. Babar replaces Salman Ali Agha.
England are unchanged.
Guy Hornsby writes in:
What a Test rearguard in Colombo it’s been this morning while we wait for play at Lords! What’s your thoughts on team line-ups here? I’d assume that England will play the same XI, given the overheads and likely only getting 4 days’ play maximum. Pakistan have a change with Babar coming back in, but will they change their attack? It doesn’t feel like the pitch will be that dry with the weather, so will they bring in a quick? Perhaps Amer Jamal is an option? They surely can’t be as poor this time out, but it’s sad to see them in such a rut, and England will have their tails up and be wanting 2-0 inside 4 days. I’d just like to see a bit of fight, as much as anything, even though I want England to win the series.
I just don’t see much changing with Pakistan’s bowling even if they tweak their lineup. Babar is huge in that he gives them a shot at a more respectable total with the bat, but the troubling part is that they fielded their best seam lineup (from the options on this tour) at Headingley. Aamer Jamal had that breakout tour of Australia in 2023-24, when he took two six-fers, but hasn’t done much since at this level. I watched a bit of Ubaid Shah against West Indies and he still seems very raw. At the very least, they have to be better in the field this Test. I do think they’ve got some runs in them, mainly through Babar and Abdullah Shafique.
The toss is now scheduled for 12pm BST, with play to begin at 12.20. We pray.
Toss delayed ... again
Yeah, we all saw it coming.
Play scheduled to start at 12pm BST
It’s an 11.30pm toss and noon start … but it still doesn’t look all that pretty out there.
Sonal Dinusha’s got his second ton of the Test! The 25-year-old is driving Sri Lanka to safety in Colombo. He’s the first player to hit twin tons in a Test against India since Jonny Bairstow in 2022.
We’ll have an inspection at 11.10am, says Ian Ward. Sky have just shown the highlights of Pakistan’s win at Lord’s in 2016 … what a game.
Zain Malik writes in:
Bland, poor, predictable, tired: the weakest Pakistan side to visit England since 1954. The precise adjective hardly matters. When the English press has just watched your batting dissolve before lunch, it tends to grow rather fond of the thesaurus.
And yet history suggests that a thoroughly humiliated Pakistan can be a dangerous thing. Rock bottom has often served less as a resting place than a trampoline: sometimes towards victory, sometimes merely towards a performance that restores the will to live.
Headingley has seldom been especially hospitable. St John’s Wood, however, is different territory. Pakistan have played England 15 times at Lord’s and possess the faintly insolent record of five wins against four defeats, with six draws. For all England’s proprietorial claims upon the Home of Cricket, Pakistan have occasionally behaved there like difficult tenants who have discovered that the landlord cannot legally evict them.
So, with the suzerainty of Lord’s once again at stake, Babar returning to find Inzamam’s great portrait and Pakistan having already located the ocean floor at Headingley, I would hesitate before writing off the men in green.
There is nowhere left for them to go but up, which, admittedly, has never stopped Pakistan from attempting to dig.
Over in Colombo, Sri Lanka’s Sonal Dinusha, just five Tests into his career, is having a staggering series against India.
He’s unbeaten on 98 against Shubman Gill’s side, nearing his third hundred in four innings. Get on this scorecard.
Toss delayed
Well, it’s hardly a shock.
This could be huge:
And gives me a chance to shamelessly plug something I wrote last year.
It doesn’t look like we’re going to see much happen this morning. A good time to catch up on some preview reading:
Preamble
Hello, hello, hello. It’s been 10 years since Misbah-ul-Haq’s Pakistan side rolled up at Lord’s and put it all together. Misbah, 42, reached three figures and celebrated with … push-ups. Yasir Shah, a wonderful leggie, spun his way to 10 wickets. And Mohammad Amir, who six years earlier had left the same venue in disgrace, went straight through Jake Ball to secure the 75-run victory. They saluted and sparkled, showing England they were up for the contest.
Ten years? Feels longer, especially after what we all saw in Leeds last week. Pakistan were remarkably poor across three days, and England should really wrap up the series this week. Yes, they’ve got to deal with the headlines from some more late-night drama. But they’re used to that, right?
Let’s just all hope that this is more of a game, that the returning Babar Azam unfurls a few on-drives that flick a switch for the tourists, that this Lord’s pitch holds up OK. Annoyingly, the weather forecast isn’t great. You’ll just have to keep me busy with your thoughts, worries, hopes, dreams, recommendations and more.
