England select specialist spin trio for third Test decider against Pakistan

England have picked a trio of spinners for the third, final and decisive Test against Pakistan after their first sight of the pitch being used for the game revealed that not only had it been blasted with hot air from an array of patio heaters, whipped down the wicket by a pair of industrial fans, but it was “pretty obvious that there’s been a few rakes put across it” – with the resulting scratches concentrated on the areas their spinners are likely to pitch the ball.

The team held their first training session in Rawalpindi on Tuesday, giving them an initial glimpse of the playing surface. “There’s not too much grass to hold everything together,” Ben Stokes said. “It’s pretty obvious there’s been a few rakes put across it. It will be interesting to see how it goes. You’d think a rake would assist the spin. You look down the pitch and we can have a pretty good guess which ends the Pakistan spinners will operate from.”

Stokes, who reiterated that he had no issue with Pakistan’s attempts to manipulate the pitch to their advantage, said that while there was clear evidence of raking at both ends, “there are certain areas” where it has been concentrated. These are seen as being intended to assist Pakistan’s spin duo, Noman Ali and Sajid Khan, who took all 20 English wickets in last week’s second Test.

Pakistan picked three specialist spinners for that game, but while between them Noman and Sajid sent down 87.5 overs their leg-spinner, Zahid Mahmood, bowled only six. They are likely to announce their own team on Wednesday, and had been expected to drop Zahid.

England’s unexpected decision to field a leg-spinner in Rehan may prompt them to reconsider. “You want to pick someone who, if you do go with three options of spin, who is not a luxury, but who’s there to be able to break the game open when you feel like it might be coming a little bit too easy at one end,” said Stokes. “Pakistan played a leg-spinner last week, who only bowled a few overs, but you’d rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it.”

In Multan England felt the run of pale, dry grass across the middle would help to rough up the ball and encourage reverse swing, and the fact that the ground in Rawalpindi offers no such assistance helped to swing their focus away from seam bowling. “The reasoning behind three spinners was, as the game progresses they will probably come more into the game,” Stokes said. “Also with the outfield being lush and green, we’ll probably struggle to get reverse swing. It was just weighing up who we think will be effective as the game goes on.”
Brydon Carse and Matt Potts drop out of the team, with Gus Atkinson returning as the only specialist seamer. Stokes put himself through an unusually lengthy spell of bowling in the nets on Tuesday, and the selection demonstrates that he feels able to contribute more than the five overs per innings he managed when he returned from a hamstring injury for the second Test.

“It was good to get through it,” he said. “I put myself through my paces at training, bowled two spells. Coming in and being one of only two seamers, I’m fully confident that I’ll be able to get more out of myself this week than I did last week.”