The Pakistan cricket team toured England in August and September 2020 to play three Tests and three Twenty20 International (T20I) matches. The Test series formed part of the inaugural 2019–2021 ICC World Test Championship. The first Test and the T20I matches were played at Old Trafford, and the second and third Test matches were played at the Rose Bowl. All of the fixtures were played behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On 5 August 2020, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced the use of technology to monitor front-foot no-balls for the first time in Test cricket. The third umpire called the front-foot no-balls and communicated this with the on-field umpires. This followed a successful trial in the One Day International (ODI) matches between England and Ireland in the World Cup Super League, which concluded the day before the Test series.
On the final day of the third Test, England's James Anderson became the first fast bowler to take 600 Test wickets. England won the three-match Test series 1–0, after the second and third Tests were drawn. The T20I series was drawn 1–1, with the first match being washed out.
Background Ahead of the tour to England, Pakistan were scheduled to play three One Day International (ODI) matches in the Netherlands, and two T20I matches in Ireland; however, in April 2020, the matches in the Netherlands were postponed after the Dutch government banned all events in the country, both sports and cultural, until 1 September 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of the pandemic, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) investigated the possibility of hosting the Test matches in bio-secure environments; Old Trafford in Manchester and the Rose Bowl in Southampton were mooted as possible venues due to their hotel facilities. In May 2020, Wasim Khan, the chief executive of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), was in talks with the ECB about the possibility of touring England; the PCB said they were "very optimistic" with regard to the plans. The PCB planned to send a combined Test and T20I squad of 25 players to give them the best options in case of any injuries. In the same month, Babar Azam was named as the new captain of Pakistan's One Day International (ODI) team. Babar said that he had complete faith and trust in the PCB's decision on touring, and said if it were safe to go, he would definitely join the tour.
In late May 2020, a revised schedule was issued, starting with the first Test match at Old Trafford from 5 August 2020. The choice of Old Trafford for the first Test meant it was the first time since England toured South Africa in 1905–06 that the team had played three Tests in a row at the same ground. On 9 June 2020, the PCB appointed Younis Khan and Mushtaq Ahmed respectively as their batting and spin bowling coaches for the tour. The PCB also decided not to hold a training camp for the national team in Lahore, and the board worked with the ECB to bring their travel date forward by a week. On 11 June 2020, the PCB confirmed that Mohammad Amir and Haris Sohail were not available to tour England for personal reasons. On 12 June 2020, the PCB named a 29-man squad for the tour; the Test side would be captained by Azhar Ali and the T20I side by Babar Azam. After the squad was named, Wahab Riaz said that he would be willing to play Test cricket again, after taking a break from first-class cricket in September 2019.
The PCB announced that the touring party would go through three rounds of COVID-19 testing prior to leaving Pakistan, and would be tested every five days once in England. On 22 June 2020, the PCB confirmed that Haider Ali, Shadab Khan and Haris Rauf had all tested positive for the virus. None of the three players had shown any previous symptoms, and were all advised to go into a period of self-isolation. England's director of cricket, Ashley Giles, said he was "concerned" by the news, but said that the tour was not in doubt. However, the following day, seven more players tested positive for the virus. Despite the increase in positive tests, Wasim Khan said that the tour was still on, and the team planned to depart for England as scheduled. Anyone who tested positive would be allowed to rejoin the squad after they finished their quarantine period and returned two negative tests. Mohammad Hafeez, one of the seven players to test positive on 23 June 2020, tested negative the following day, after taking a private test to get a second opinion. Six of the ten players who initially tested positive returned a negative when they were tested again. On 27 June 2020, the PCB confirmed that 20 players and 11 members of their support staff would be travelling to England. The flight departed from Allama Iqbal International Airport the following morning, and arrived in Manchester later the same day. On 30 June 2020, the six players that tested negative after initially testing positive, provided a second negative test, and travelled to England as soon as possible. They were joined by three more players who provided two negative tests in four days. In July 2020, Wasim Khan admitted that the PCB came under pressure over whether to tour England after so many players returned a positive test.
In June 2020, the International Cricket Council (ICC) made several interim changes to the Playing Conditions due to the pandemic. A substitute could be used for any player showing symptoms of COVID-19, but only in a Test match. Players were banned from using saliva to shine the ball and five penalty runs would be awarded to the opposition for repeated infringements. The requirement to use neutral match officials was temporarily lifted, and the number of DRS reviews for each team in each innings was increased, as the available umpires were less experienced at international level. Following criticism of play being lost in the second Test due to bad light, the ECB agreed that play in the third Test could start half an hour early, at 10:30am, if time was lost during the match due to the weather.
The second T20I match was shown free-to-air on BBC One in the United Kingdom, the first time since 1999 that a live cricket match was broadcast on BBC Television. Graham Thorpe, England's interim head coach, said that it provides a "great opportunity for cricket".
Squads TestsT20Is Joe Root (c) Ben Stokes (vc) James Anderson Jofra Archer Dom Bess Stuart Broad Rory Burns Jos Buttler (wk) Zak Crawley Sam Curran Ollie Pope Ollie Robinson Dom Sibley Chris Woakes Mark Wood Azhar Ali (c) Babar Azam (vc) Mohammad Abbas Shaheen Afridi Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk) Fawad Alam Abid Ali Kashif Bhatti Shadab Khan Sohail Khan Shan Masood Mohammad Rizwan (wk) Asad Shafiq Naseem Shah Yasir Shah Imam-ul-Haq Eoin Morgan (c) Moeen Ali Jonny Bairstow (wk) Tom Banton Sam Billings Tom Curran Joe Denly Lewis Gregory Chris Jordan Saqib Mahmood Dawid Malan Adil Rashid Jason Roy David Willey Babar Azam (c) Shaheen Afridi Iftikhar Ahmed Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk) Haider Ali Mohammad Amir Mohammad Hafeez Mohammad Hasnain Shadab Khan Shoaib Malik Haris Rauf Wahab Riaz Mohammad Rizwan (wk) Khushdil Shah Naseem Shah Imad Wasim Fakhar Zaman
On 12 June 2020, the PCB named a touring squad of 29 players for both the Test and T20I matches. The PCB also named Bilal Asif, Imran Butt, Muhammad Musa and Mohammad Nawaz as reserve players for the tour. On 27 July 2020, the PCB shortlisted a 20-man squad for the Test series. On 4 August 2020, this was trimmed down to a 16-man squad ahead of the first Test.
On 27 June 2020, due to the high number of positive tests for COVID-19, Rohail Nazir was also added to Pakistan's touring party. Zafar Gohar, who is based in England, joined the team when they arrived in the country, but only took part in pre-match preparations. Kashif Bhatti returned a positive COVID-19 test while in England, but was able to rejoin the squad on 16 July 2020 after two negative tests and a period of self-isolation. On 20 July 2020, Mohammad Amir was added to Pakistan's squad for the T20I matches, following the early birth of his second child; Amir had initially ruled himself out of travelling to England. Amir replaced Haris Rauf, after Rauf provided five positive tests out of six for COVID-19 in the last month. On 30 July 2020, the PCB confirmed that Rauf had returned two consecutive negative tests, and was therefore eligible to fly to England to join the Pakistan squad. On 12 August, Mohammad Hafeez had to self-isolate after breaking biosecurity protocols by posing for a photo with a member of the public at the golf course adjoining the Rose Bowl. Hafeez underwent a COVID-19 test the same afternoon, and returned to the squad the following day, after the test was negative.
On 29 July 2020, England named their squad for the first Test, which was unchanged from the side that had beaten the West Indies the previous day. James Bracey, Ben Foakes, Dan Lawrence and Jack Leach were also named as reserve players for the opening fixture. On 9 August 2020, Ben Stokes withdrew from the squad for the final two Test matches to travel to New Zealand due to family reasons; Ollie Robinson was called up in his place. The following day, Lawrence left the England squad to attend a family bereavement, but no replacement for Lawrence was named. On 12 August 2020, Robinson was named in England's squad for the second Test.
On 18 August 2020, the ECB named their 14-man squad for the T20Is, also naming Pat Brown, Liam Livingstone and Reece Topley as reserve players. Ahead of the T20I matches, Jason Roy was ruled out of the series, after suffering a side strain.
Practice matches Pakistan were due to play two tour matches, a first-class match against a Select XI side, and a 20-over match against Leicestershire. However, the tour matches were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, Pakistan played intra-squad matches to serve as preparation. A two-day practice match took place in Worcester, ahead of two four-day matches in Derby. On the morning of the second four-day match, the PCB announced that the match would have first-class status.
Test series 1st Test
After winning the toss and electing to bat, Pakistan openers Shan Masood and Abid Ali put on 36 runs for the first wicket, before Abid was bowled by Jofra Archer with the first ball of the 16th over. Captain Azhar Ali fell next to Chris Woakes, trapped lbw for a duck after facing just six balls. The next man in, Babar Azam, reached his fifty in 70 balls, ahead of Masood, and just before a rain delay and an early tea interval. Just eight more overs were bowled before the day's play was called to an early close with Pakistan on 139/2, Babar having reached 69 and Masood still four runs short of his half-century.