Daily Times

Ben Stokes returns as captain for England’s three-Test tour of Pakistan next month while Brydon Carse could make his debut just weeks after completing a ban for breaches of betting rules.

Stokes will skipper the side after missing the 2-1 home series win against Sri Lanka with a hamstring injury. Opener Zak Crawley is also in the squad announced on Tuesday after missing the same series with a broken finger. Bowling all-rounder Carse, who returned to action in late August after serving a three-month ban for historical betting violations, appears to be the main beneficiary of a year-ending elbow injury to Durham team-mate and fellow quick Mark Wood.

The South Africa-born 29-year-old, who has featured in 17 white-ball internationals for England, takes his place in a 17-strong squad alongside another player yet to make his Test bow, Jordan Cox.

The tour is scheduled to get under way on October 7 in Multan.

There are due to be further Tests in Karachi and Rawalpindi but renovations ahead of next year’s Champions Trophy are causing problems at those venues. One or more of the games could be moved to the United Arab Emirates or Sri Lanka.

Dan Lawrence, a makeshift opener against Sri Lanka in the absence of Crawley, has been dropped. Young left-arm fast bowler Josh Hull has been retained while Jack Leach and Rehan Ahmed – two spinners who featured in England’s historic 3-0 series whitewash over Pakistan in 2022 – are recalled. Leach was displaced as England’s number one spinner this season by Shoaib Bashir but the Somerset pair, plus Leicestershire’s Ahmed, form Stokes’s trio of frontline slow bowling options.