England one-day captain Eoin Morgan expects to confirm whether he will tour Bangladesh soon after next week’s finish of the home series against Pakistan. I would say in such a short space of time it is a hard one, but we have certainly been given the time by the European Central Bank which helps.
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Pakistan have found themselves in a precarious situation where they face the risk of not qualifying automatically for the 2019 World Cup and the message from head coach Mickey Arthur to the players is loud and clear – perform or leave. The visitors have had no answers to a supreme all-round display from England, who have shattered batting records in the series.
Pakistan now have two ODI series lined up against West Indies, one against Australia and Bangladesh each to fix the damage before the September 2017 deadline.
Moeen Ali, who scored 45 runs off 59 balls, then wound up the innings by lifting Azhar Ali for a six.
Meanwhile, wicket-keeper Jonny Bairstow told several British newspapers: “I’ve not made a 100 % decision but I know within my mind that I have a lot of faith in Reggie”.
And thanks to a thoroughbred 69 from Stokes and a well-crafted 61 from Bairstow, England made it four from four with a professional four-wicket win.
The tourists’ bowling coach Azhar Mahmood, a veteran of many seasons in England as a player, admits the ongoing Royal London Series has been a disappointment for Pakistan.
Arthur, who took over the coaching reins after spells in charge of his native South Africa and Australia, however, insisted that he has full say in selection alongside chief selector Inzamam-ul- Haq.
European Central Bank security adviser Reg Dickason cleared the tour to go ahead last week and Bairstow is the first player to publicly comment on his intent to go on the tour and will make a final decision next week when the touring party is announced. He went on to get a run-a-ball fifty, including five fours and a six, before slog-sweeping Wasim to Babar Azam at mid-wicket.
Pakistan will be locking horns with England today in 5th ODI at Sophia Gardens, all four ODI’s of the 5-match series ended as an one-sided affair forEngland. “But we lost wickets frequently”.
“I haven’t got that many wickets in one-dayers this summer, but feel like I’ve bowled quite tight and that’s important”.
“England are a phenomenal cricket team, power-hitters all the way down”, he said.
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And just as he did on his debut against India in Cardiff, and again in Durham against the Kiwis past year, Bairstow made his call up count with a match-winning performance to show just how good England’s strength in depth is. If you see Trent Bridge, every score is at least 381 in the last 50 over-games. We just don’t have the players to do that within our group of 15 at the moment. Irfan was a player of interest and I wanted to have a look at him go. “We have not had a great deal of time to think about it – we have played a number of one-day games, and have not had a great deal of downtime”.
