England drop Dan Lawrence and call up Brydon Carse and Jordan Cox
Jack Leach, who lost his place to Somerset team-mate Shoaib Bashir as England’s first-choice spinner, is in the squad, alongside leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed. Left-armer Tom Hartley misses out despite playing all five Tests on the tour of India earlier this year.
In all, there are six frontline seamers chosen, including 20-year-old left-armer Josh Hull following his debut against Sri Lanka in the third Test at The Oval.
Chris Woakes will go on his first England Test tour since Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum took charge of England in 2022, alongside Gus Atkinson, Olly Stone, Matthew Potts, Carse and Hull.
The inflated number of seamers could be down to fitness doubts over Stokes and Atkinson, the latter struggling with a thigh problem.
There is also confusion over the venues, which were due to be Karachi, Rawalpindi and Multan.
However, building work in Karachi is likely to leave that stadium unavailable, and a new schedule is due to be announced this week.
There has been speculation that part of the series could be shifted to the United Arab Emirates, but it is now thought the entire series will take place in Pakistan, possibly with two Tests in Rawalpindi.
Pakistan played both Tests of their 2-0 defeat by Bangladesh in Rawalpindi and did not pick a specialist spinner for the first Test, opting for four seamers.
England won 3-0 on their last visit to Pakistan in 2022, the first time a visiting team had recorded a 3-0 clean sweep in the country.
