England pray for coin to fall their way on return to scene of 'mega' victory

Pakistan are in flux while the tourists have gambled on Ben Stokes' fitness to bowl and spin wildcard Rehan Ahmed

- Simon Burnton

England's return to Rawalpindi brings with it reminders of one of the nation's great away wins, secured here just under two years ago, and with them perhaps a small but nevertheless handy bump to a few players' morale. "That was a mega win, wasn't it?" said Harry Brook. "Hopefully we can take some of that confidence and momentum and bring it into this game."

Ben Stokes certainly felt a spring in his step when he first walked back on to the ground where, in the dying moments of the final day, Jack Leach winkled out the last wicket to secure a remarkable victory. Or at least, what he thought was that ground. "When we turned up at the first Test I said to Leachy, 'Oh, some great memories here!' he said. 'And it was the wrong place.'"

Yesterday, in the right location, Stokes was reminiscing again. 'Wherever you go around the world, if certain things happen like that, you're always going to remember those things,' he said. 'Every player will have grounds where they can walk in and they'll just go straight back to something special that happened to them.'