Test cricket returns to Headingley on Wednesday morning with England in a condition few of their supporters would have forecast in May: no Ben Stokes, no Brendon McCullum in the red-ball dugout, and Joe Root back in a job he once admitted had worn him down. The England v Pakistan first Test begins at 11:00 BST, and it opens a three-match series that will tell us what England’s post-Bazball cricket actually looks like in practice rather than in press conferences.
Pakistan arrive with troubles of their own, the largest of which is that their captain will not be playing. Here is what matters before the first ball of the England v Pakistan first Test.
- Why Root’s second captaincy reign begins with a deliberate refusal to tear anything up
- What Babar Azam’s hand injury means for Pakistan – and for Salman Agha
- England’s reshaped top order, and the No 3 nobody saw coming
- The coaching arrangement hanging over the whole series
- What a good three weeks would look like for each side
How England arrived at a reset
The backdrop is six weeks of upheaval. Stokes retired from international cricket in the middle of the summer. McCullum was then sacked as Test head coach after two wins in ten matches, a run BBC Sport describes as dogged by off-field issues: an incident involving Harry Brook and a nightclub bouncer in Wellington, the squad’s drinking on a mid-Ashes trip to Noosa, and a team curfew broken by Stokes himself. England lost 4–1 in Australia last winter and 2–1 at home to New Zealand this summer – their first home three-Test series defeat since 2012.
Crucially, McCullum has not left English cricket. He remains head coach of the one-day and Twenty20 sides; it is only the red-ball post he has lost, a distinction worth holding on to as this series is discussed. Even that vacancy has not been properly filled. Stephen Fleming has been appointed as the incoming Test head coach but does not take up the role until after the Pakistan series, which leaves Marcus Trescothick as interim boss for three matches. Root says he has been in “constant contact” with Fleming in the meantime. We covered the reasoning behind that upheaval in why McCullum was removed as England’s Test coach.
The questions that decide the England v Pakistan first Test
Root’s second act, on his own ground
There is no gentler setting for this than Headingley, and no harder one. Root, 35, is a Yorkshireman returning to lead England on the ground where Stokes produced the most famous innings of the modern era. He has already captained England in 65 Tests, a national record, with a record 27 wins and a record 27 defeats to show for it; his first 47 matches in charge brought 26 victories before the decline that ended his initial reign. The numbers behind that second tenure are set out in full in our piece on Root’s record as England captain.
What he is not planning is a revolution. “I don’t think there’s a huge amount that we need to change,” Root told the Guardian at Headingley. “It’s small things that will make a big difference. It’s not about ripping it up. It’s about keeping a lot of the good stuff that we’ve been doing for a period of time and that Ben and Baz built for a long while, but making small adjustments that in-game will make a big difference.”
On the absence of his predecessor he was equally direct: “It’s a big void to fill and someone that’s been ever-present for the best part of 15 years, so clearly it’s been different.” Asked by BBC Sport what he wanted from his players after a chaotic year, the answer was about conduct as much as cricket. “We might have fallen short of that on a few occasions in the recent past,” Root said. “The only thing we can do to rectify that is be really good role models, good human beings and put in really strong performances on the field. The first opportunity to do that is this week.”
A top order rebuilt around an unfamiliar No 3
England’s selection puzzle is at first drop. With Jacob Bethell injured, Essex’s Jordan Cox has been handed the No 3 slot for the first two Tests, a position he has occupied once in first-class cricket – as an 18-year-old in 2019. Cox told the Guardian that the selector Marcus North gave him something rarer than reassurance: certainty. “Northy didn’t have to go: ‘You’re batting at three in these two Test matches’, but he did. This is 100% – unless I get injured. Clarity’s one of the best things in sport.”
It is a promotion of sorts. Cox’s Test cap finally arrived this summer at No 7, as a specialist batter covering for a suspended Stokes at the Oval, two years after a broken thumb cost him a debut. He made 204 from 201 balls against Leicestershire in June and has opened for Kent, which is the case for him. “It will be fun, I’m looking forward to it,” he said. Dan Lawrence, meanwhile, returns to the Test squad from Surrey and was praised by Root as “exceptional”. Brook, Test vice-captain as well as England’s white-ball captain, remains the batter around whom the middle order is built.
Pakistan without their captain
Babar Azam has been ruled out of the first Test with a right-hand injury, having been struck during Pakistan’s warm-up match at Beckenham – the same hand he hurt in the second Test against West Indies earlier this month. “Pakistan captain Babar Azam is unavailable for the first Test match,” head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed told ESPNcricinfo. “Salman Agha will be the captain for the first Test.” Sarfaraz said there was no fracture in the middle finger but “quite a bit of pain”, and that Babar might recover in time for the second Test.
The blow is heavy. Babar had only just been reappointed captain and was the leading run-scorer in the drawn series in the Caribbean. In his place, Salman Agha leads a Pakistan Test side for the first time, having captained the T20I team for some time; he managed 20 runs in three innings in the West Indies. Shan Masood has recovered from a finger fracture of his own. Our full profile of the stand-in skipper is here: Salman Agha’s unplanned Test captaincy bow.
The challenges neither side can dodge
The obvious one is impermanence. England are playing three Tests under a coach who will hand the job over the moment they finish, an arrangement Mark Ramprakash, writing in the Guardian, called a mess – while allowing that Root and Fleming could yet prove a good blend. BBC cricket correspondent Stephan Shemilt has drawn the uncomfortable parallel with Root’s last tour as captain, in the West Indies in 2022, played under interim coach Paul Collingwood and followed swiftly by his resignation.
Pakistan’s instability is, if anything, deeper. ESPNcricinfo counts five different Test head coaches since 2023-24, including Jason Gillespie and Aaqib Javed before Sarfaraz, a former captain himself. Their bowling remains the one dependable asset: Mohammad Abbas is a genuine new-ball master in these conditions, and England’s reconfigured top order will be examined by him within the hour. Pakistan drew 1–1 in the Caribbean this month, ending a record run of eight consecutive away defeats, but they have not won a Test tour of England since 1996.
What happens next
For England, the measure is straightforward: they have not won a Test series since late 2024, and a first series victory of the Root-Trescothick period would steady a summer that has otherwise been chaotic. Beyond Headingley lie a winter in South Africa, where the Basil D’Oliveira trophy is at stake, and an Ashes summer in which England will try to win back the urn they lost 4–1. Fleming inherits whatever this series produces.
For Pakistan, the target is narrower and, on recent evidence, no less ambitious: keep the series alive until Babar is fit. If Salman Agha can take his side into the second Test level, a tour that has been written off before it started becomes something else entirely. Much depends on whether their batting can survive long enough for Abbas and the seamers to matter.
The verdict before a ball is bowled
Two teams out of form, two dressing rooms mid-rebuild, and a ground that will not let England forget the man who is no longer in it. That is not a vintage billing, but it is a compelling one – and for Root, on his home ground, it is the first genuine chance to finish a captaincy story he did not get to end the first time. Play begins at 11:00 BST on Wednesday. Follow our rolling England v Pakistan coverage for team news and reaction from Headingley.
