Big picture: Time for England to show their serious side?
The whys and wherefores can wait, as Root said, for the Cricket Regulator to have its say. But, on Sunday, Carse became the seventh centrally-contracted England player to be cited in a nightclub incident since October 2025, a period in which the team has won three and lost six of their nine Tests. Root may have held his “robust” dressing-room discussions, but there’ll be no easy way for this team to change the prevailing narrative, least of all against this Pakistan opposition.
It’s indelicate to say it, but last week’s innings-and-103-run loss at Headingley was troublingly one-sided. Pakistan are of course renowned for blowing hot and cold – quite literally so when it comes to the industrial fans that helped to turn the tide of the last series between these teams in 2024, and the memories of that bounce-back 2-1 win may be a useful cautionary tale if any of England’s players threaten to get ahead of themselves.
In between whiles, England made just enough runs to set up their rout, thanks to four half-centuries that hinted at a more staid approach to innings-building, without quite showcasing the ruthlessness that will be required to take down better opponents. Harry Brook scarcely played a shot in anger, let alone with pre-meditation, yet he still top-scored with 91 from 93 balls. Umar Gul blamed the Yorkshire weather for hoodwinking his seamers into thinking they’d be playing in Karachi-style heat, but given their collective failure to locate a serviceable line and length, it was actually a blessing that they weren’t baked alive while serving up their four-balls.
Can we really expect any improvement in the contest this coming week? Babar Azam’s return from a finger injury will be a boost to Pakistan’s batting stocks, while Mohammad Abbas’ storied county stints with Hampshire and Nottinghamshire suggest he surely cannot bowl with such a lack of penetration for two matches in a row. But Usman Ali’s impact as a spinner may be negated at a venue where Shoaib Bashir didn’t bowl a single ball in England’s 996-ball win over New Zealand in June.
And there’s the prospect of England’s own players stepping up their games. Robinson was the pick of the seamers at Headingley, largely because he’d spent the preceding month bowling 60 balls per innings in the One-Day Cup, rather than a maximum of 20 in the Hundred.
It was clear, in that regard, how much Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson and Tongue improved as the first Test wore on and they got themselves reacquainted with the rhythms of red-ball cricket. Archer in particular was transformed as a new-ball threat by the second innings. None of that trio, however, bowled more than 20 overs in the course of the match, meaning there’ll be few concerns about workload management over the coming week at Lord’s.
All things being equal, England will expect to do the needful over the course of the coming five days, and emerge with their first Test series victory since the tour of New Zealand in December 2024. It would be a first for many of the players in this set-up too, among them Emilio Gay, Jordan Cox and Tongue. It’s hard to see that prospect as a cause for celebration, however. A surfeit of off-field antics have seen to that.
Form guide
England WLLWL (last five Tests, most recent first)
Pakistan LWLLL
In the spotlight: Jamie Smith and Babar Azam
Team news:
The luxury of an unchanged team beckons for England, after a deeply untaxing victory at Headingley. Carse surely wouldn’t have come into the reckoning, even before his Derby misdemeanour. Four half-centuries from England’s top six point to a batting unit that has more to give as well.
England: (probable) 1 Emilio Gay, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Jordan Cox, 4 Joe Root (capt), 5 Harry Brook, 6 Dan Lawrence, 7 Jamie Smith (wk), 8 Gus Atkinson, 9 Jofra Archer, 10 Ollie Robinson, 11 Josh Tongue
Azan Awais, the luckless recipient of that Robinson first-baller, is the likeliest man to make way for the returning Babar, with Abdullah Shafique stepping up to open. Ubaid Shah is a candidate for the seam attack, potentially at the expense of Khurram Shahzad.
Pakistan: (probable) 1 Imam-ul-Haq, 2 Abdullah Shafique, 3 Shan Masood, 4 Babar Azam, 5 Saud Shakeel, 6 Salman Agha (capt), 7 Mohammad Rizwan (wk), 8 Ubaid Shah/Khurram Shahzad, 9 Ali Usman, 10 Mohammad Abbas, 11 Mohammad Ali
Pitch and conditions: Flat deck in prospect for chastened Lord’s?
England’s opening win of the Test summer, against New Zealand in June, feels an eternity ago now. But MCC’s grandees will remember the occasion with regret, after the shortest Test at Lord’s in 140 years resulted in cricket’s most famous venue being labelled by the ICC as “unsatisfactory”, and slapped with a demerit point. Given the number of shooters that marred that contest, anything other than the flattest of flat decks would be a huge surprise. With London’s heat-wave receding into memory, showery conditions may be in prospect across the five scheduled days.
Stats and trivia
Quotes
“If I’m being brutally honest, I’m really hacked off, I’m really disappointed. After last week’s performance, we’re sat here and we’re talking about something that is not related to it at all.”
Joe Root gets his frustrations off his chest after the Carse nightclub incident
Andrew Miller is UK editor of Cricinfo. @miller_cricket
