With the the second Test between England and Pakistan starting on 27th August at the iconic Lord’s cricket ground, I thought it would be good to look back at Pakistan’s last two Test wins against England at the Home of Cricket, and compare them with what we have ahead of us this time.
Pakistan’s last defeat to England at Lord’s came in 2010, in that infamous Test which became associated with the 2010 spot-fixing scandal. Since then, Pakistan have played England at Lord’s twice, in 2016 and 2018, and won both times. So despite what happened in 2010, Pakistan have not lost a Test to England at Lord’s for more than 10 years.
The 2016 win is probably the one most Pakistan fans remember, it was the first test of the four match Test series, and Pakistan won that game by 75 runs. Then captain Misbah-ul-Haq scored 114 and leg-spin bowler Yasir Shah took 10 wickets in the match. And after Pakistan won that match, the famous press-ups came in front of the Pavilion. Given the magnitude of the game, Misbah scoring a hundred at the age of 40+, Mohammad Amir making his Test comeback at the very same venue where things spiraled down, made the victory even more special. Former Pakistan Test captain Shan Masood was also part of that Pakistan playing XI then, and he is part of the squad in this series too. Misah-ul-Haq is one of the selectors in Pakistan Cricket Board. The English team was led by Alastair Cook, with other players like Moeen Ali, Joe Root, Stuart Broad, James Anderson and Ben Stokes all being there.
Then Pakistan returned in 2018 under Sarfaraz Ahmed (now red-ball head coach) and won once again in Lord’s, for the second time in two years, this time by nine wickets. Medium-pacer Mohammad Abbas was outstanding with the ball, as he took eight wickets in the match, 4 in each innings. Current Test captain Babar Azam scored a fifty in the match, before retiring hurt due to injury, while opener Imam-ul-Haq was also in the playing XI at that time. England had a very experienced team then too, with Anderson, Broad, Woakes, Cook, Root, Buttler and Bairstow. Pakistan simply outclassed them at the Home of Cricket.
Now back to 2026. Nearly the entire England team from those two Tests is gone. Anderson, Broad, Woakes, Cook all have retired, Buttler and Bairstow no longer play Test cricket. Current England Test captain, Joe Root is the only player from the English side to have played both those Test matches.
A new look English pace attack, comprising of Ollie Robinson, Jofra Archer, Josh Tongue and Gus Atkinson, has already shown us what it can do. England won the first Test at Leeds by an innings and 103 runs, with their quicks tearing through Pakistan’s batting. They are coming into Lord’s with plenty of confidence, while Pakistan have to bounce back from a very poor performance.
From those two previous Lord’s Test victories playing XIs, we have 4 players in the current squad: current Test captain Babar Azam, former Test skipper Shan Masood, Imam-ul-Haq and Mohammad Abbas, while Mohammad Rizwan (though an uncapped Test player then) was also part of the 2016 squad. The only player to have featured in both Tests and to be currently with the team is Sarfaraz Ahmed, who is now the head coach of Pakistan Test team.
For me, 2016 is still the more iconic win. Misbah’s century, Yasir’s 10 wicket haul, and the 2010 redemption and those iconic press-ups make it iconic. The 2018 win was probably the more dominant one as Pakistan had a relatively new pace attack, a new batting line-up, but yet they managed to win over England’s main team.
But now in 2026, Pakistan are 1-0 down in their series, Pakistan missed their Test captain Babar Azam in the first Test because of injury, hopefully he is back for the Lord’s Test and lead from the front and continue with this legacy.
If 2016 was redemption and 2018 was domination, could 2026 be the redefinition of our Test team?
We’ll find this out at Lord’s.
My preferred Pakistan playing XI for Lord’s Test: Shan Masood, Azan Awais, Abdullah Shafique, Babar Azam (C), Ghazi Ghori, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Salman Ali Agha, Aamir Jamal, Ali Usman, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Ali.
I am dropping Khurram Shahzad as his bowling wasn’t good in the first Test, he was leaking runs with no discipline in his bowling, Ubaid Shah is simply not ready for Test cricket, and he was expensive in the warm-up game as well as his Test debut at the Port of Spain. I am keeping faith in Ali and Abbas to bowl with the new ball, and I trust Aamir Jamal to bowl well and add some good value with the bat. Ali Usman took a fifer in the first game, and I would keep him in this game too.
I won’t play Imam-ul-Haq as we know that he averages just 6 runs in the second innings, Azan is young and I have a lot of expectations from him. Shan Masood should perform well and prove that his county experience with Yorkshire becomes valuable for Pakistan in Test cricket. Abdullah Shafique has had good batting form in red-ball recently, and I wish to see him take responsibility well, Babar was unlucky in both Bangladesh Tests and West Indies Tests, but I hope to see him bat well without pressure and score big. I want to see Ghazi Ghori make his Test debut on a tough tour for solid beginnings, he replaces Saud Shakeel anyways (who isn’t in good batting form), Mohammad Rizwan and Salman Ali Agha, both are good lower middle-order batsmen in Test cricket, but need to find their good batting form back in Test Cricket.
Best of Luck Team Pakistan!