Stokes helps flood appeal on England's return to Pakistan

‘We are looking forward to playing an entertaining style of cricket which hopefully ends up in results’

- Ali Martin Rawalpindi

It may be his first overseas assignment as England’s Test captain and the chance to discover whether his side’s new-found attacking elan can translate to unfamiliar conditions but Ben Stokes is nonetheless aware of the bigger picture.

After England’s first training session before the first Test starting on Thursday at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, Stokes announced he will donate his three match fees to the Pakistan flood appeal. The game has given me a lot in my life,” he wrote on Twitter. I feel it’s only right to give something back that goes far beyond cricket.”

Worth around 45,000, the captain’s gesture is in keeping with a goodwill tour overall, one that after the successful recent Twenty20 leg sees an England Test side return to Pakistan for the first time in 17 years amid another vast security operation.

There is one survivor from their last Test visit in 2005 the evergreen Jimmy Anderson, who had to wait until the one-day internationals for his chance and a couple among the coaching staff in Marcus Trescothick and Paul Collingwood. Otherwise it is a step into the unknown for the current generation against a team smarting from their recent defeat by England in the T20 World Cup final.