Root and Babar embark on contrasting, challenging second acts

When Joe Root and Babar Azam potentially come face to face for the toss at Lord’s, it will be a meeting of two captains in their second winds, both trying to prove a point at a time when their teams need so much from them.

For Root, it is about showing that his return to the England captaincy can be more than a nostalgic, even desperate, second act. His first Test back in charge was nearly perfect, with England producing an emphatic innings win at Headingley. But instead of that performance dominating the conversation, the headlines have once again been about England players getting themselves into trouble.

Root had expected his players to take responsibility and behave like "grown-ups", going as far as removing the midnight curfew. No wonder he admitted to being "hacked off" and "disappointed" that "stupid mistakes" were taking the focus off England’s cricket.

Brydon Carse, who was seen in handcuffs outside a Derby nightclub and is the latest player to get into trouble, has been dropped for this Test, although England will not feel the cricketing pinch quite as sharply. He was not part of the Playing XI at Headingley, unlike Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson when they were dropped for a Test match earlier this summer, and England subsequently lost the match and the series.

The challenge for Root, then, is not necessarily to fix England on the field. Headingley suggested there is little that needs fixing at the moment. It is about keeping the noise away from a side that has found itself on the wrong page of the newspapers far too often in recent times.

For Babar, the equation is far simpler, and considerably more immediate. He batted in the nets two days out from the Test and is poised to return after missing the first match, in which the manner of the defeat stood out for the visitors. Their fast bowlers, mostly bowling in the 130s, looked a world removed from their predecessors, while their batters, from the top order through the middle, looked uncertain and unsure.

Pakistan can point to the inexperience of the side and the difficulty of those conditions, but Lord's offers them an opportunity to snap out of their winless streak in SENA countries, which has now extended to 17 Tests going back to 2018. Perhaps an England team once again contending with off-field distractions from another nightclub incident offers a timely opportunity to exploit.

When: 2nd Test, starting 27 August 2026, at 3:30 PM IST / 11:00 AM local

Where: Lord's, London

What to expect: The pitch for the fixture against New Zealand earlier this summer led to the second-shortest Test match at the venue, and the surface was rated "unsatisfactory" by the ICC. Match referee Andy Pycroft pointed to "excessive seam movement" and the ball keeping "extremely low on several occasions", and it remains to be seen what the groundstaff does to find the right balance on a pitch that’s admittedly become slow and tired. There's some rain predicted through the course of the Test match.

Team news

England: The hosts didn't play a specialist spinner in the first Test, and after the kind of victory that they had in Leeds, it's likely that they could again go in unchanged.

Probable XI: Ben Duckett, Emilio Gay, Jordan Cox, Joe Root(c), Harry Brook, Dan Lawrence, Jamie Smith(w), Ollie Robinson, Gus Atkinson, Jofra Archer, Josh Tongue

Pakistan: Babar Azam is all set to return after missing out in Headingley with injury. He will slot in at No. 4, which means Abdullah Shafique is likely to open, with Azan Awais making way for him. Pacer Ubaid Shah, who made his debut recently in the Caribbean, missed out on selection in the first Test and could get a look-in.

Probable XI: Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, Shan Masood, Babar Azam, Saud Shakeel, Mohammad Rizwan(w), Salman Agha(c), Ali Usman, Khurram Shahzad, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Abbas

Did you know?

- Joe Root is set to play his 168th Test, surpassing Stuart Broad and joining Ricky Ponting and Steve Waugh. Only Sachin Tendulkar (200) and James Anderson (188) have played more.

- Babar Azam averages 65.75 in England, with three fifties in six innings. Against England, he averages 53.83, with a fifty or a hundred in seven of 14 innings.

- England have won their last four Tests at Lord's; their last defeat came here in the 2023 Ashes.

What they said

"What I will say is that actually, we have an opportunity moving forward. Clearly, we're not portraying ourselves how we want to, and I think we've got an opportunity to build a culture that's very strong, something that we can be proud of, that's player-driven" - Joe Root, England captain.

"Yesterday, I had a couple of practice sessions and again after that I am doing my practice sessions. I am 90% fit for tomorrow’s match and rest of the series" - Babar Azam, Pakistan captain.