The match will be played at Old Trafford on Wednesday.
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The two teams drew a four-match Test series at 2-2, followed by the 4-1 England ODI series win. Sarfraz Ahmed takes over as captain of the T20I side, hoping to impress his own adventurism and propensity for daredevilry.
Selector Tauseef Ahmed is hopeful of a resurgent performance from the team and is banking on Sarfraz to deliver from the front and take the game to the opposition. The match is very crucial for the Pakistani side, as it is their only chance to regain the pride in this tour. England and the seven highest-ranked sides on the ICC ODI Team Rankings as on 30 September 2017 will qualify directly for the ICC’s pinnacle 50-over tournament, while the remaining two sides will progress from the 10-team ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2018.
What to expect: A pleasant Manchester evening. Flawless conditions for more runs.
After winning the toss and fielding the same team that lost the World Twenty20 final to West Indies in Kolakata last April, England’s innings got off to a bright enough start with 53 runs from the initial six-over powerplay, only for clusters of wickets and inability to find the boundary in the second half to leave their total a somewhat constipated one. Meanwhile, the bowling unit of England will be led by the trio of Mark Wood, Liam Plunkett and Tymal Mills.
Pakistan:Even without Afridi and Mohammad Hafeez, Sarfraz has a squad full of spinning all-rounders at his disposal. Pakistan too have brought in fresh blood for the game, including Amad Butt, Khalid Latif and Sohail Tanvir, while Sami Aslam, Yasir Shah, Umar Gul, Hasan Ali and ODI skipper Azhar Ali are flying back home after being dropped.
Whatever the result of Wednesday s match, the tour has already seen an enterprising Pakistan side do much to restore a reputation damaged in the eyes of both their own fans and England supporters by the spot-fixing controversy that blighted their last visit in 2010.
The match that will stream live from Manchester and features the captaincy debut of Pakistan’s veteran wicketkeeper, Sarfraz Ahmed. He had lead them once before in an ODI against Zimbabwe in Harare previous year.
Pakistan’s win under the Old Trafford floodlights was set up by a disciplined display in the field after England were well-placed at 56 without loss.
– If selected, Jos Buttler will become the fourth England player to appear in 50 T20Is after Eoin Morgan (63), Stuart Broad (56) and Luke Wright (51). The T20 global against Pakistan will give the squad another opportunity to measure their development.
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Hales and Root added a massive 248-run stand which is the highest for the third wicket by any team while England went on to post the highest ever ODI score in the history of the game surpassing 443, which was set by Sri Lanka against the Netherlands in 2006.
