England name Root’s first squad in four years, and Pakistan land for their first Tests here since 2020

England named a 16-man squad for the first two Tests against Pakistan on 6 August, and the sheet reads like the start of something rather than the continuation of anything. Joe Root is captain again, four years after he gave the job up. Ben Stokes has retired. Brendon McCullum is no longer the Test coach. The series opens at Headingley on 19 August, which happens to be Root’s home ground.

Root takes the job back after four years

Root captained England in 64 Tests between 2017 and 2022 and won 27 of them, more than any England captain before or since. He also lost 26, which is likewise more than anyone else, and the second number is why he stepped down in April 2022 sounding like a man who had been carrying the thing for too long. We looked at what those numbers actually say about his first spell in more detail elsewhere.

England confirmed the reappointment on 30 July, alongside Stephen Fleming as the new Test head coach. Fleming does not start straight away. Marcus Trescothick takes the side through the Pakistan series as interim coach, with Fleming picking it up for the tour of South Africa in December. So what England put out at Headingley is Root’s team before it is anybody else’s.

McCullum, who stepped down from the Test job on 12 July, has not left English cricket. He stays on as head coach of the white-ball sides, where Harry Brook is captain, which keeps that partnership intact in the formats it has been working in.

Lawrence at six, Cox at three

The two selection calls worth arguing about sit next to each other in the batting order. Dan Lawrence has not played a Test since September 2024, against Sri Lanka, and comes straight back in at six on the back of a county season that is hard to ignore: five hundreds for Surrey and an average above 65 in Division One. Marcus North, who took over as national selector in May, called it an exceptional season. Selectors say that about most players they have just recalled. In this case the numbers are doing the talking.

Jordan Cox goes in at three. That promotion is built on somebody else’s misfortune, because Jacob Bethell hurt his right knee during the one-day series against India last month and is out. Cox made his Test debut earlier this summer against New Zealand at the Kia Oval, which means a young player is being handed the hardest position in the order in his second series.

Ollie Pope, Brydon Carse and Sam Cook all come back after spells out. Cook’s Test career currently amounts to one match, against Zimbabwe last summer.

Seven seamers and one spinner

The 16 breaks down as seven fast bowlers and a single frontline slow bowler. Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Carse, Cook, Matthew Fisher, Ollie Robinson and Josh Tongue are all in; Shoaib Bashir carries the spin on his own. On English pitches in late August that split is defensible, though it does guarantee that several quick bowlers spend the first Test in the dressing room.

Harry Brook, Ben Duckett, Emilio Gay and Jamie Smith complete the group, with Smith keeping wicket.

Pakistan land for their first England Tests since 2020

Pakistan flew in from the Caribbean at the weekend and began formal training at Beckenham on Monday. This is their first Test tour of England since 2020, when three matches were played in empty grounds and England won the series 1-0.

They arrive off a 1-1 draw in the West Indies. The hosts took the first Test at Tarouba by 90 runs; Pakistan came back to win the second at Port of Spain by eight wickets, their first away Test victory in three years. That is not a form line so much as a sign of life.

Babar Azam leads the squad, back in the job he lost to Shan Masood at the end of 2023 and with Masood still in the side. Mohammad Rizwan keeps, Imam-ul-Haq and Masood give the top order some mileage, and the bowling leans on Mohammad Abbas, Khurram Shahzad and the off-spin of Sajid Khan. Saud Shakeel’s place was subject to a fitness clearance when the squad went out.

Before the Tests, Pakistan play a four-day game against a Select XI at Beckenham from 12 to 15 August. Four days of red-ball cricket in English conditions is more preparation than most touring sides are given now, and probably still not enough.

Three Tests, and points that count

The series runs Headingley from 19 to 23 August, Lord’s from 27 to 31 August, and Edgbaston from 9 to 13 September. Every match feeds the World Test Championship 2025-27 table, which is the sum both dressing rooms will be doing by the second week of September.

For England it is the first assignment of a new era with an old captain running it. For Pakistan it is a chance to win something in England for the first time in a very long while. Neither side turns up with much settled, which tends to make for a better watch than it does a comfortable month for the people picking the teams.

Follow the build-up to England vs Pakistan