Pakistan tour of England 2026: full Test squads, schedule and Leeds Test preview

Quick answer

Pakistan tour England for a three-match Test series from August 19 to September 13, 2026. The opener is at Headingley, Leeds. Joe Root captains England in his second stint. Babar Azam leads Pakistan, back in the job after three years out of it. Both boards have named their squads, and it's part of the 2025-27 World Test Championship cycle.

 

Pakistan tour of England 2026: full Test schedule

Three Tests, three grounds, four weeks. Simple on paper. Loaded with subplots underneath.

Test	Dates	Venue	City
1st Test	19-23 Aug	Headingley	Leeds
2nd Test	27-31 Aug	Lord's	London
3rd Test	9-13 Sep	Edgbaston	Birmingham

Pakistan play a four-day warm-up against a County Select XI from August 12 to 15 before the series starts. That's their only chance to get used to the Dukes ball and the WTC pressure before Headingley.

 

England squad for the Pakistan Tests

England named a 16-man squad for the first two Tests: Joe Root (captain), Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Sam Cook, Jordan Cox, Ben Duckett, Emilio Gay, Dan Lawrence, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson, Jamie Smith and Josh Tongue.

Root returns as full-time captain after Ben Stokes retired from Tests. He led England from 2017 to 2022, so this isn't a debut. It's a comeback, and a strange one, given how the Bazball era was built specifically to move past his captaincy style.

Ollie Pope and Dan Lawrence are both back after being dropped. Lawrence hasn't played a Test since September 2024. He's the second-highest run scorer in Division One this season, 788 runs at 65.66, five hundreds. That kind of form doesn't get ignored twice.

Jordan Cox is the name to watch. He's set to bat at 3, the spot that opens up because Jacob Bethell is out.

Jacob Bethell isn't in this squad because of a knee injury, not a form issue or a selection call. Worth saying plainly, since it's the kind of thing readers assume is tactical when it's actually medical.

 

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Pakistan squad for the England tour

Pakistan's squad: Babar Azam (captain), Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Ali, Salman Ali Agha, Azan Awais, Abdullah Fazal, Imam-ul-Haq, Aamir Jamal, Ghazi Ghouri (wicketkeeper), Sajid Khan, Shan Masood, Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper), Khurram Shahzad, Saud Shakeel, Mohammad Awais Zafar, Ubaid Shah and Ali Usman.

Babar Azam returns as Test captain after three years away from the role. His last Test as captain before this was against Sri Lanka in Colombo, July 2023. Shan Masood loses the armband but keeps his spot in the XI conversation.

The bigger story is who's missing. Shaheen Shah Afridi, Hasan Ali and Noman Ali are all left out. That's a lot of experience to leave at home for a tour where English conditions usually punish inexperienced attacks.

 

England vs Pakistan squads: side by side

Area	England	Pakistan
Captain	Joe Root	Babar Azam
Wicketkeeper	Jamie Smith / Jordan Cox	Mohammad Rizwan
Lead pace option	Jofra Archer	Mohammad Abbas
Comeback batter	Dan Lawrence, Ollie Pope	Babar Azam (as captain)
Major absence	Jacob Bethell (injury)	Shaheen Shah Afridi (selection)

On paper, England's seam options run deeper. Archer, Atkinson, Carse, Cook, Fisher and Robinson is a genuine six-man rotation for three Tests in four weeks. Pakistan's attack leans on Mohammad Abbas's control rather than raw pace, which could matter a lot at Headingley if the ball swings.

 

Why Trescothick is coaching England, not Fleming

Stephen Fleming is England's new Test head coach. He signed a four-year deal that runs to September 2030. He won't be in the dugout for a single ball of this series.

Marcus Trescothick takes interim charge for the Pakistan Tests. Fleming arrives in the UK later this summer and takes over properly for the South Africa tour in December. It's an odd setup, a new coach picking the squad without coaching the games, but Fleming was involved in selection alongside national selector Marcus North before stepping back.

Root has said Fleming's appointment was a "big reason" he wanted the captaincy again. So the two are already linked in the public story, even before Fleming's had a chance to run a training session.

 

Headingley: what to expect from the 1st Test

Headingley swings. Everyone who's played there says the same thing when the sky goes grey, and this late in August, grey skies aren't rare in Leeds.

England's seam attack should suit the ground. Whether that's Archer and Atkinson new-ball, or Carse and Cook holding one end, the conditions favour whoever controls the moving ball longest. Pakistan's batters, several of whom have limited recent experience in England, face the sternest opening test of the tour in literally the first session.

Don't lock in a pitch report before match week. Headingley in particular can flip from green-top to flat depending on how much covering it gets in the days before.

 

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England's likely XI for Leeds

Ben Duckett and Emilio Gay look set to open, with Root at 3 or 4 depending on how Pope and Cox are slotted around him. Cox at 3 is the selectors' stated plan, which pushes Root back to a more familiar middle-order spot.

The seam attack picks itself around Archer's fitness. If he's fully right, expect him alongside two of Atkinson, Carse and Cook, with Robinson or Fisher as back-up. Shoaib Bashir likely sits out at Headingley unless the pitch looks unusually dry.

This is a prediction, not a confirmed team. England announce their actual XI on the morning of the Test.

 

Key players to watch

Joe Root. Back as captain, with everything that comes with it: scrutiny, expectation, and a middle order that now needs him to lead runs as well as the dressing room.

Babar Azam. Returning to Test captaincy after three years out. How he handles an England attack in English conditions will shape how this comeback is judged.

Jofra Archer. Fitness is the only question that matters with Archer. When he's right, he's the fastest bowler either side has.

Mohammad Rizwan. Pakistan's most reliable batter in tough conditions over the last few years, and their keeper. A lot rides on his top-order runs.

 

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Frequently asked questions

When is the England vs Pakistan 1st Test in 2026?

 August 19 to 23, 2026, at Headingley in Leeds.

Where is the series being played?

 Headingley (Leeds), Lord's (London) and Edgbaston (Birmingham).

Who captains England against Pakistan?

 Joe Root, in his second stint as Test captain.

Who captains Pakistan against England?

 Babar Azam, back in the role after three years.

Why is Jacob Bethell not playing?

He's out with a knee injury, not a selection decision.

Is Stephen Fleming coaching England against Pakistan?

No. Marcus Trescothick is interim head coach for this series. Fleming takes over full-time from the South Africa tour in December 2026.

Is this series part of the World Test Championship?

Yes. It's part of the 2025-27 WTC cycle.