The New-look England side will face Pakistan in the opening ODI at Cardiff. Ben Stokes will lead the side.
Match Timings: July 08, 5:30 PM IST
Team Preview
Pakistan will start their white-ball assignment in England with an ODI series and they will face a different English side following seven positive cases of covid-19 in the original England squad. ECB named a revised 18-man ODI squad which has nine uncapped players. Phil Salt, Dawid Malan, James Vince, and Test specialist Zak Crawley might take positions in the top four. The Bowling unit will also be new but these all players are coming off a competitive county season. Craig Overton, Matt Parkinson, Lewis Gregory, and Saqib Mahmood will use their experience here. We may see at least three players making their debut in ODI format. It’s a great opportunity for young players to show their talent on a big stage.
England are currently on the top in Super League with 65 points and won the ODI series 2-0 against Sri Lanka. It will be their last ODI series this summer. England’s ODI record hasn’t been so convincing as they lost to Australia and India in past one year. Their two ODI series win came against lower-ranked sides, Ireland and Sri Lanka. Out of 11 complete games, England won 6 games and 4 victories came against Ireland and Sri Lanka. This task would be tough with some young players but this English side will give a tough game to the Asian side.
Meanwhile, Pakistan will have busy away assignments and they will be heading to West Indies after facing England. Pakistan’s numbers are slightly better but they have played only two series under Super League. They beat Zimbabwe at home 2-1 and edged past South Africa in away series. Pakistan have a golden chance to look for 30 points from the series which will help them to take the top position in Super League. Their last success in South Africa will boost them but the task wouldn’t be easy. If they took this English side lightly, then these young players can surprise them. We have seen in the past when a second-string Sri Lanka whitewashed Pakistan in 2019.
Pakistan are favourites but the English side might surprise them because it’s the first game for the Asian side in the UK and they might be tested in English conditions. Toss will play a big role. Stokes and Malan’s role in batting will decide the outcome for England.
Pitch Report
Cardiff’s surface is good for batting and we can expect a good score of around 300 on this track. Chasing would be easy and pacers can take extra help from the pitch.
Possible XI
England (will update soon)
Ben Stokes (C), Jake Ball, Danny Briggs, Brydon Carse, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Lewis Gregory, Tom Helm, Will Jacks, Daniel Lawrence, Saqib Mahmood, Dawid Malan, Craig Overton, Matt Parkinson, David Payne, Phil Salt, John Simpson, James Vince
Pakistan
Imam-ul-Haq, Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Sarfaraz Ahmed/Haris Sohail, Mohammad Nawaz, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi, Usman Qadir, Haris Rauf
Key Players
England
Ben Stokes
Highly experience guy in English side, a quality player with both bat and ball
James Vince
A solid opener and construct innings very well
Pakistan
Fakhar Zaman
MOS in South Africa with two 100s, top form in ODI
Babar Azam
No.1 ranked ODI batter, coming off an impressive T20 season in UAE
