England and Pakistan will conclude the final game of the ODI series in Birmingham. England have already won the series by beating Pakistan in the first two games convincingly.
Match Timings: July 13, 5:30 PM IST
Team Preview
England will meet Pakistan in the last game of the ODI series and Ben Stokes’ troops would look to take clean-sweep in the series. A young England side surprised everyone with their dominating game of cricket and defeated Pakistan in two back-to-back matches. After winning the opening game by 9 wickets, England won the second game by 52 runs. Pakistan looked pathetic in terms of batting. They didn’t cross the mark of 200 in both matches, In the last game, Hasan Ali added some fire with the bat to reduce the margin of defeat.
England have been a top side but their batting collapsed in the middle when Hasan Ali came out with some quality bowling. He claimed a fifer in the second ODI but England somehow managed to get 247 in a 47-over game. Pakistan’s top-order failed to deliver in consecutive games and lost early wickets. Babar and Rizwan didn’t provide depth against a less-experienced bowling side. Pakistan got one positive from the defeat as young Shakeel scored a gritty half-century in his second ODI of the career. He looked calm and perfect with his shot selection.
Pakistan were favourites when the series started but things have been changed in just two games. England’s second-string team thrashed visitors in style and Pakistan would now look to find a consolation victory. Pakistan have earlier defeated teams like Zimbabwe and South Africa but they got a different task this time. Their batting unit has been exposed but they can be proud of the bowling efforts they added in the second game. There are some bowling flaws as well but it was slightly better than the batting.
England have tightened their grip on Super League’s points table with 85 points. Saqib Mehmood impressed in both games and he picked three wickets in the second game to take his wicket tally to seven. It’s a great opportunity for young players to show their talent on the big stage. Saqib might be a good inclusion in the English ODI side for future perspectives. Out of 13 complete games, England won 8 games and four came this home summer.
It feels like Pakistan’s second-string team was playing against a strong England side. They took this English side lightly, and they were not prepared for this task. After playing Pak T20 League in UAE, all Pakistani players were fully boosted but we saw a different story in England. Remember, a second-string Sri Lanka whitewashed Pakistan in 2019 and Sarfaraz lost his captaincy. Babar can also face the same if they deliver poor performance throughout the tour. We might see some changes in the Pakistani squad.
Pitch Report
Birmingham’s surface is good for batting and batsmen can get lot of runs here. Extra bounce and extra help to pacers will be key. Chasing should be slightly tough in any score above 250.
Possible XI
England
Philip Salt, Dawid Malan, Zak Crawley, James Vince, Ben Stokes (c), John Simpson (wk), Lewis Gregory, Craig Overton, Brydon Carse, Saqib Mahmood, Matthew Parkinson
Pakistan
Imam-ul-Haq, Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Saud Shakeel, Sohaib Maqsood, Shadab Khan, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf
Key Players
England
Ben Stokes
Highly experience guy in English side, quality player with both bat and ball
Zack Crawley
A solid opener, scored half-century in debut game
Pakistan
Hasan Ali
Has been a top performer in last one year, fifer in last game followed by quick cameo with the bat
Babar Azam
No.1 ranked ODI batter, coming off an impressive T20 season in UAE
