SOUTHAMPTON, United Kingdom: Pakistan captain Azhar Ali won the toss and elected to bat in the second Test against England at the Ageas Bowl on Thursday as Fawad Alam was recalled for his first match at this level in nearly 11 years.
The tourists made one change to the side that lost the first Test by three wickets at Old Trafford last week, with 34-year-old batsman and left-arm spinner Alam replacing leg-spinning all-rounder Shadab Khan.
A prolific run-scorer in Pakistan domestic cricket, Alam played the last of his three previous Tests, against New Zealand in Dunedin, back in November 2009.
England, 1-0 up in a three-match series being played behind closed doors because of the coronavirus, made two changes.
As expected, top-order batsman Zak Crawley returned in place of Ben Stokes after it was announced the star all-rounder would miss the final two matches of this series for personal reasons after travelling to New Zealand to be with his ill father.
Crawley has missed England's last two Tests, when an extra seamer was included to compensate for pace bowler Stokes's quad injury.
Meanwhile fast bowler Jofra Archer was officially "rested", with England in the middle of a gruelling schedule of six Tests in seven weeks following their 2-1 series win at home to the West Indies last month.
Archer's place was taken by left-arm seamer Sam Curran, who has been on the winning side in all his previous eight home Tests.
Teams
England: Rory Burns, Dom Sibley, Zak Crawley, Joe Root (capt), Ollie Pope, Jos Buttler (wkt), Chris Woakes, Sam Curran, Dom Bess, Stuart Broad, James Anderson
Pakistan: Shan Masood, Abid Ali, Azhar Ali (capt), Babar Azam, Asad Shafiq, Fawad Alam, Mohammad Rizwan (wkt), Yasir Shah, Mohammad Abbas, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah
