Pakistan have packed their team with spinners for the second Test to make the most of a used pitch that Ben Stokes admitted played a part in hastening his return to the side.

The match will start on Tuesday on what is in effect a day-six surface after Pakistan took the unprecedented step of recycling the same pitch for consecutive Tests played just three days apart.

The pitch was open to the elements again on Monday, baking under the hot sun, and will start very dry, making the toss and batting first vital. Pakistan have picked up to seven spinners in their team.

Pakistan dropped fast bowlers Naseem Shah and Shaheen Shah Afridi and instead picked three frontline spinners and also have up to four part-time spin bowlers in their final XI with just one seamer.

England have gone down a different road, making two changes to their team with Stokes replacing Chris Woakes and Matthew Potts coming in for the rested Gus Atkinson. England decided against picking Rehan Ahmed, and instead stuck with two spinners in Jack Leach and Shoaib Bashir, plus back-up from Joe Root.

The dry surface is likely to promote reverse swing as well but England are sceptical about it suddenly becoming a bowler-friendly surface a week after they scored more than 800 on it.

“It’s the first time ever I’ve played on a used wicket in a Test series,” admitted Stokes. “I think we could sit here and say ‘it’s going to do this, it’s going to do that’, but who knows? You’d like to think it’s going to offer the spinners a bit more than it did last week, with it being used and hot. It’s a slightly drier square so you might see a little more reverse swing to bring seamers into the game.”

Potts and Brydon Carse will take the new ball, with Stokes first change in an all-Durham seam attack, which must be a first for one county to supply all of England’s quick bowlers. The last time two bowlers from the same county opened the bowling for England was when Stuart Broad and Jake Ball played together in 2016.

Stokes believes the spinners will play a greater role on a used pitch, which helped make his mind up that he can play as an all-rounder after suffering a nasty hamstring tear this summer. “I feel good. I’m looking forward to getting back on the field. I’ve worked really hard at the back end of my rehab period at home and throughout the last Test match as well.

“Look, it’s obviously got to be [a] sensible [amount of bowling]. I’m obviously playing as a third seamer. To be honest, playing on a used wicket sort of made the decision a little bit easier, you like to think that this is going to spin a bit more. We’ve got two workhorses in the team in Carsey and Pottsy who just keep going and going and going.

“But I’m available to bowl and obviously when I sense the time is right for me to maybe come on and make an impact there won’t be any doubts in my mind that I can come on and bowl.”

Stokes may well have been fit enough last week to play as a specialist batsman, but it upsets the balance of the team. “I’d written a few teams down with me not bowling and it just didn’t work,” he said.

Pakistan have responded to losing the first Test by ripping up their attack, dropping star batsman Babar Azam and making four changes. It completely reverses their tactics of a week ago when they wanted a green pitch and picked three fast bowlers.

After six defeats in a row, they have swung the axe picking the 38-year-old left-arm spinner Noman Ali, who averages 33 in Test cricket, off-spinner Sajid Khan, who averages 38 from eight Tests, and leg-spinner Zahid Mahmood, who was hammered for 235 off 33 overs when England scored more than 500 in a day in Rawalpindi two years ago.

They are backed up by part-time spinners in debutant Kamran Ghulam, who bats at four on debut in place of Babar, Agha Salman, Saud Shakeel and opener Saim Ayub, who bowled 14 overs last week.

“I think to use an already used pitch the idea is to get 20 England wickets. If we go with spinners and dominate then we have a good chance to get 20 wickets,” said Azhar Mahmood, the Pakistan bowling coach.