England will be hosting the Pakistan Cricket team for a two-test match series starting on Thursday, May 24, 2018. The first Test is scheduled to begin at Lords, London at 10:00 AM GMT or 3:00 PM PST.

This test match will also mark the beginning of the international cricket season of England in 2018.

England is currently placed in the fifth position on the ICC Test Championship rankings, while Pakistan is placed at the seventh position. The last time these two teams played a test series against each other, was back in 2016 in England. Pakistan had drawn the four-match test series with England by 2-2.

England team news:

They are coming off from two back-to-back series losses in Australia and New Zealand, and their last test win came at the Lord's back in September 2017 against the West Indies. The England captain Joe Root and the fans will hope to see some good form from the English side.

The 20-year-old spinner Dominic Bess is expected to make his debut, as England have dropped Moeen Ali for this series. Jos Buttler has been added to the side in place of James Vince, while there is uncertainty about the third pacer as there are two probable candidates, Chris Woakes and Mark Wood.

Rest of the side is expected to remain similar to the one which played in New Zealand.

Pakistan team news

They won the one-off test match against Ireland in Dublin a few days back, but the win against the debutants might not have given captain Sarfaraz Ahmed full confidence in his side. Rahat Ali played the last test match but went wicketless, so he might be replaced by Hasan Ali, who has more pace and better batting abilities.

Babar Azam had a niggle in the nets but is expected to be fit on the match day. Pakistan has some happy memories of Lord's as they had beaten England at this very venue last time they visited England in 2016.

Pitch: There was some green grass on the wicket at the Lord's building nearing the game, but it will be removed before the start of play.

We can expect a difficult surface for batting in the morning session, but it will ease up as the day progresses.

Weather: The chances of rain on the first day is less, but there will be lots of clouds hovering over London.

Where to watch

The match will be broadcast live on the Sky Sports channel in the United Kingdom, while Sony Six channel will telecast the Test live for viewers in India and it's subcontinent. Viewers in Pakistan can watch the match on PTV Sports channel.

The online streaming of the test match can be witnessed on the Sky Go app, which is available on Windows, Android, iOS, Mac Computers and Desktop PC. Along with this, PTV Sports website and the SonyLiv mobile app will also provide live streaming.