By RICHARD GIBSON, MAIL ON SUNDAY CRICKET CORRESPONDENT
Published: 02:00 BST, 16 August 2026 | Updated: 02:00 BST, 16 August 2026
New captain, interim coach, players recalled who had not previously featured in 2026. If Englandās lot this summer befell Pakistan, it would be considered par for the course.
This coming week, with incoming Test coach Stephen Fleming not ready to take up his role, Joe Root and Marcus Trescothick will form a temporary leadership alliance, while Dan Lawrence, Ollie Pope and Sam Cook return to the fray in Leeds.
England are desperate to create some stability after reaching the end of the Bazball era with the midsummer departures of Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum, but if one team in world cricket is accustomed to dealing with the unsettling elements of wholesale change it is Pakistan.
Some will even argue that rather than run from chaos, they embrace it, and in keeping with dull moments being conspicuous by their absence where their cricket is involved, captain Babar Azam provided a pre-series scare on Friday when he was forced to retire hurt and pull out of the remainder of the warm-up match against a County Select XI.
Failing to ride a rising delivery from Hampshireās teenage seamer Manny Lumsden, Babar was struck on the right glove and immediately began wringing his hand in discomfort.
Team insiders insist the removal was a precautionary measure and that although there was no sign of a fracture, the fact that it was the same middle finger Pakistanās premier batsman damaged during the recent Test win over West Indies in Trinidad meant no chances were being taken.
Babar Azam, pictured earlier this year ahead of a Test against West Indies, gave his side an injury scare this week ahead of the England clash at Headingley
That eight-wicket victory earlier this month was Pakistanās first overseas for three years, ending a sequence of eight straight defeats, and although Babarās brief sidelining removed the chance to further develop the on-field bond between this latest combination of players, he is pencilled in to rejoin them in the nets at Headingley on Monday, 48 hours before the first Test of three begins.
Mirroring the situation England found themselves in, a level of awkwardness surrounded Pakistanās most recent captaincy change ahead of the 1-1 series draw in the Caribbean.
The strong friendship between Joe Root and Harry Brook has diluted the issue from an English perspective after Stokes nominated the latter as his successor during his farewell at Trent Bridge, and Brook followed up with a public pitch to become captain across all formats.
Arguably, Pakistan had to overcome something slightly worse, though, with Shan Masood axed after three years in charge but retained in the XI under Babar. The response offered mixed results: although Masood scored a first-innings hundred, the match ended in defeat and him nursing a finger injury that would keep him out of the second match.
It was partly for his statesmanlike demeanour that Masood replaced Babar as captain in 2023 and it is for his diplomatic communication skills that former captain Rashid Latif suggested this week a novel relationship could now develop. Masood, he argued, should continue with media interactions, shielding Babar and allowing him to concentrate on directing operations in the middle now he has the armband back.
āAn England tour is a difficult assignment, and the English media often tries to unnecessarily involve visiting teams in news stories,ā he claimed.