England vs Pakistan 2nd Test Prediction

Team News

Owing to his poor run of form in test cricket, Mark Stoneman has been dropped from the squad for the second test and has been replaced by Keaton Jennings who will now take up the opening position alongside Alastair Cook. Stoneman returned single-digit scores at the Lord's and he has not scored more than 60 in his 20 test innings. Jennings, on the other hand, has shown good form in county cricket and has hit three hundreds in his last seven innings. England are expected to make one more change ahead of the Headingley test. They could bring in Chris Woakes for Mark Wood who took just two wickets in the opening game. Woakes has more experience at test level; he has played almost twice the number of matches than Wood and has taken twice the number of wickets.

Key Players

Alastair Cook top-scored with 70 for England in the first innings of the Lord's test. He is the most experienced batsman in this line-up and has scored the most test runs for the team. Joe Root is third on the ICC test rankings for batsmen and is coming off a well-compiled 68. Jos Buttler continued his rich vein of form from the IPL, scoring an impressive 67 in the second innings. James Anderson is currently the second best bowler in test cricket and he will be England's best bet to provide the early breakthroughs. The hosts will also expect strong bowling performances from Stuart Broad and Ben Stokes who took three wickets in the first innings. Anderson and Broad have shared 70 wickets between them in the combined 17 tests they have played at this ground.

Recent Form

England have not been able to secure a win in their last eight test matches- they have lost six and drawn two of those. The heavy loss to Pakistan in the first game was their third defeat in the four tests they have played this year. While their bowlers did a pretty decent job at the Lord's, their batsmen showed lack of application and made some poor shot selections which eventually cost them the match.