Ollie Pope will captain England in place of Ben Stokes for the first Test against Pakistan armed with a pace attack that includes debutant Brydon Carse.

Stokes has failed to recover from a hamstring tear in time for the start of the series in Multan, meaning Pope will captain England on his 50th Test.

England named their team on Saturday with Chris Woakes, Carse and Gus Atkinson making up the pace attack. Zak Crawley returns to open the batting after missing the Sri Lanka series with a broken finger.

Woakes, Carse and Atkinson are all more than capable with bat in hand, which will help mitigate the loss of Stokes.

Jack Leach also returns to the side for the first time since he limped out of a Test match in Hyderabad in January. He will be paired for the first time with his Somerset colleague Shoaib Bashir.

“I tried my hardest to get myself fit for this game, but have taken the call to miss this one because I’ve not quite managed to get game-ready,” Stokes said.

“There is a lot that has to go into my rehab programme. We got to a certain point, but looking at the picture of what we’ve got coming up and physically where I’m at, I’m not quite ready to play. It’s always frustrating to miss out. I’ve got some good things to focus on, so even though I’m not playing I’ve got a goal in mind.”

When asked if he will be fit for the second Test, also in Multan, that starts on October 15, Stokes was non-committal.

“Not sure. I’ve pushed myself incredibly hard and worked really hard with the medical team to get to where I’m at now. I think I’m further ahead than what we expected. I’ll be working just as hard over the next 10 days to try to get myself fit for the second Test.”

It makes life a little easier for England when Stokes is categorically ruled out of the side rather than playing as a batsman, which ruins the balance of the team and forces them to choose between being a bowler or batsman light.

Carse bowled his way into the Test side with a good performance in the white-ball series against Australia when he touched 90mph, but Multan in 36C heat, rather than September in England, will be a tough challenge for all the seamers. Woakes has not played in Asia since 2016 and Atkinson is appearing in his first Test overseas.

Stokes signs central contract extension while five lose deals

Stokes confirmed that he has signed a two-year central contract extension with England and Telegraph Sport understands that breakout star Jamie Smith is the only other player offered a multi-year deal.

A year ago, England overhauled their contract system by introducing multi-year deals.

Stokes rejected a longer-term deal, signing a one-year contract instead, as he waited for a renewal of terms on the memorandum of understanding between the players and the governing body, which comes into force this year and means more money in the overall pot for players.

While there is more money in total, the same number of contracts, 26, have been offered.

Stokes and keeper-bat Smith will be locked in until the end of the 2026 summer, a period that includes the Ashes tour.

Five players are losing their central contracts while five new players are offered deals.

James Anderson, Moeen Ali and Dawid Malan have retired from international duty, while Ben Foakes and Ollie Robinson have been dropped, having not been selected since the Test tour of India earlier this year.

In their place, Bashir, fast bowler Olly Stone, white-ball hitters Will Jacks and Phil Salt, and Smith have been offered contracts for the first time. All bar Smith – who was voted the PCA Young Player of the Year this week – have been offered a single year.

In addition, Leach and Reece Topley have been offered extensions to their one-year deals.

The players are currently mulling the terms offered, with an announcement over who has signed expected later this month.

Eighteen players will automatically enter the second year of their multi-year deals, including Jonny Bairstow, who is currently out of favour in all three formats, and Josh Tongue, who has not played for England since July 2023 because of injuries.

England team: Crawley, Duckett, Pope (c), Root, Brook, Smith (wk), Woakes, Atkinson, Carse, Leach, Bashir.

Possible Pakistan team: Abdullah Shafique, Saim Ayub, Shan Masood (c), Babar Azam, Saud Shakeel, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Salman Agha, Aamer Jamal, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah, Abrar Ahmed.