MANCHESTER: The first Test match between Pakistan and England will start at Old Trafford in Manchester on Wednesday (today).  

The match will start at 03:00 pm Pakistan Standard Time.

Pakistan captain Azhar Ali has expressed his satisfaction with his team’s preparation for the first Test of the three-Test ICC World Test Championship series with England.

Azhar announced the 16 member Pakistan squad while interacting with Pakistan media in an online press conference ahead of the first Test on Tuesday before sharing his views on team’s preparation for what promises to be an exciting series.

“The preparations have gone really well for the past month, we’ve trained really hard and used all the facilities organised by the ECB. We are very thankful, in Worcester and Derby we had all the things we could hope for. We are very much prepared for the Test match.

“You can’t replicate Test cricket in the practice games, of course, but whatever opportunity we had we tried to prepare ourselves. Sometimes you have to be the one that plays second, so England have played three Test matches and that’s good for them but there is no excuse in international cricket,” he said.

Azhar has high hopes from his pace attack comprising Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi Mohammad Abbas and Sohail Khan. The quartet was named in the final sixteen; Pakistan will be finalising their eleven on the morning of the match.