Potts and Brydon Carse will take the new ball, with Stokes first change in an all-Durham seam attack, which must be a first for one county to supply all of England’s quick bowlers. The last time two bowlers from the same county opened the bowling for England was when Stuart Broad and Jake Ball played together in 2016.
Stokes believes the spinners will play a greater role on a used pitch, which helped make his mind up that he can play as an all-rounder after suffering a nasty hamstring tear this summer. “I feel good. I’m looking forward to getting back on the field. I’ve worked really hard at the back end of my rehab period at home and throughout the last Test match as well.
“Look, it’s obviously got to be [a] sensible [amount of bowling]. I’m obviously playing as a third seamer. To be honest, playing on a used wicket sort of made the decision a little bit easier, you like to think that this is going to spin a bit more. We’ve got two workhorses in the team in Carsey and Pottsy who just keep going and going and going.
“But I’m available to bowl and obviously when I sense the time is right for me to maybe come on and make an impact there won’t be any doubts in my mind that I can come on and bowl.”
Stokes may well have been fit enough last week to play as a specialist batsman, but it upsets the balance of the team. “I’d written a few teams down with me not bowling and it just didn’t work,” he said.
Pakistan have responded to losing the first Test by ripping up their attack, dropping star batsman Babar Azam and making four changes. It completely reverses their tactics of a week ago when they wanted a green pitch and picked three fast bowlers.
