Pakistan face a series-defining second Test against West Indies at Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain starting Sunday, August 2, 2026, needing a win to avoid a series defeat.
West Indies won the series opener in Tarouba by 90 runs, extending Pakistan’s away Test losing streak to eight matches in a row and entering the decider as clear favourites.
Regular opener Shan Masood will miss the Test after fracturing a finger, with Abdullah Shafique named as his replacement in the Pakistan XI.
The Pakistan Cricket Board has also brought in middle-order batter Saud Shakeel as an additional option, which should let all-rounder Aamer Jamal settle into a more natural lower-order role after batting at varying positions in the first Test.
The Test runs from August 2 to 6, with play starting at 10 am local time (2 pm GMT) on each of the five days.
A win or a draw would hand West Indies the series outright, while Pakistan must win at Port of Spain to square the two-match series 1-1.
Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain has a long history as a Caribbean cricket venue, having hosted Test matches since 1930 and remaining one of the region’s most storied grounds.
West Indies enter the second Test as clear favourites, having outplayed Pakistan across the four days of the series opener in Tarouba a week earlier.
The two-match series is part of the ongoing World Test Championship cycle, adding extra context to how each side approaches results on this tour.
Mohammad Ali took four wickets in West Indies’ first innings of the opening Test, one of the few individual bright spots for Pakistan’s bowling attack across the four-day defeat in Tarouba.
In the first Test, seamer Khurram Shahzad drew West Indies’ top-scorer Kavem Hodge into an edge that captain Salman Agha snapped up at slip inside the first three overs of the third day.
Photo by Dominic Sayers, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
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