After picking three new spinners and a used pitch, it’s fair to say that’s an important toss for Pakistan to win.

“Yeah,” smiles Ben Stokes, “we would have batted as well.”

Kamran Ghulam, a 29-year-old with a first-class average of 49, replaces Babar Azam and will make his Test debut. The three recalled spinners are Sajid Khan, Noman Ali and Zahid Mehmood; they come in for Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah and the unwell Abrar Ahmed. Including occasional bowlers like Salman Agha, Pakistan have seven spinners in the team.

England make two changes from the first Test. Ben Stokes and Matthew Potts are in; Chris Woakes and Gus Atkinson are putting their feet up.

Pakistan Saim Ayub, Abdullah Shafique, Shan Masood (c), Kamran Ghulam, Saud Shakeel, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Salman Agha, Aamer Jamal, Sajid Khan, Noman Ali, Zahid Mehmood.

England Crawley, Duckett, Pope, Root, Brook, Stokes (c), Smith (wk), Carse, Potts, Leach, Bashir.

In using the same pitch Pakistan are, counterintuitively, breaking new ground. “We can discuss what we think it’s going to do, but we won’t really know until a day or a session has been played on it,” said Ben Stokes, who has never seen the like and no idea what to expect. “You’d like to think it will offer spinners more than it did last game. I’m not sure the bowlers will like it, but you can still see the footmarks from the last Test. Who knows what’s going to happen?”

The more things stay the same, the more they change. Pakistan and England are back at the Multan Cricket Stadium for the second Test, playing on the same surface as last week, but Pakistan are hoping for a completely different ball game. They have recalled three spinners with a combined age of 105 and are gambling that the dead pitch of the first Test will come dramatically to life like a slasher movie villain.

It’s quite a gamble, but maybe Pakistan don’t have much left to lose. They’ve been beaten in their last six Tests, equalling their worst-ever run, and responded to defeat in the first Test by leaving out arguably their three best players: Babar Azam, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah. If they’re not at rock bottom, they’re certainly in the same postcode.

Pakistan are in such a mess, in fact, that it feels inevitable they will rout England to square the series. There’s are few teams in world sport who are more dangerous when they are in complete disarray, and Pakistan will aim to play with the freedom of the cornered tiger.

England have also made changes, with the fit-again Ben Stokes and Matthew Potts replacing Chris Woakes and Gus Atkinson. Stokes will bowl a bit in an all-Durham pace attack that also includes Brydon Carse, the man who drew the short straw and will have to go again on that thing, in that heat.

It’s common for white-ball games to be played on used pitches. But nobody can remember it happening in a Test and anything is possible over the next few days. For all we know, by days nine and ten the ball might be turning backwards. Mind the cracks.