Pakistan and England will once again do battle as the four-match ODI series begins tomorrow in the UAE.
The sub-continent side continued their record of not losing a Test Series in the middle eastern country with a 2-0 victory over the English, and in the process moved up to second in the Test rankings, while England dropped to sixth. But for now, the focus is on the 50-over format as both sides will look to build upon the progress they’ve made since the World Cup earlier this year. Both sides won their warm-up matches fairly comfortably with England winning by 163 runs against Hong Kong while Pakistan saw off Nepal with a 121-run victory.
Pakistan vs England ODI Series Preview
The last series time two sides met in 2012, England won the four-match series 4-0 with two centuries apiece for Alistair Cook and Kevin Pietersen. Both are absent from the current squad for different reasons but the likes of Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Alex Hales are there to take the mantle.
In the eight months since their own miserable World Cup exit down under, England seemed to have finally ‘got with the times’ and produced the sort of aggressive cricket that has become typical of limited-overs cricket in recent times, and it certainly seemed to reap instant rewards with a 3-2 series victory over World Cup runners-up New Zealand during the English summer, which included match-winning innings from the likes of Jonny Bairstow and Jos Buttler, who are both battling for the wicketkeeper spot (even though both have played together in the past with Buttler taking the gloves). But after a poor run of form for Buttler in the Ashes series against Australia and the subsequent one-day series, it looks likely that Bairstow will be in the XI for tomorrow’s opening ODI, especially if Buttler fails to recover in time from a finger injury.
Captain Eoin Morgan has stuck to a rotation policy with his bowlers so expect to see Reece Topley, David Willey, Chris Woakes, Liam Plunkett and Chris Jordan all have a go with the white ball at some point during the series, but not Steven Finn or Mark Wood, both of whom been ruled out with injuries. The spin duo of Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali will hope to do better than they did in the third Test in Sharjah and the latter will look to get back in the runs after a difficult time opening the batting in the Test Series.
On the batting side, Alex Hales and Jason Roy will be keen to make a mark alongside Stokes, Taylor and Root (who sat out of the Australia ODI series) as this relatively young team look to build on their brave, new approach to white-ball cricket.
As for Pakistan, they’ve won their last three ODI series. Admittedly two of those were against Zimbabwe but they did enjoy a 3-2 win in Sri Lanka in between. Their leading run-scorer that series was all-rounder and former captain Mohammad Hafeez, who will once again lead from the front alongside the current skipper Azhar Ali. The experience of the 37-year-old Younis Khan could also play a huge part in deciding the outcome of the series.
Their leading bowler, the 7ft 1in tall Mohammad Irfan, is officially the tallest person ever to play first-class and international cricket, but the left-arm fast-bowler will be keen to show his worth with the ball. As will Wahab Riaz, who has come on leaps and bounds since impressing in the 2015 World Cup and ripped England to shreds in the second Test in Dubai. The impressive leg-spinner Yasir Shah has also caught the cricketing world’s attention and has inevitably drawn comparisons with the legendary Shane Warne.
There are plenty of match-winners on either side and with Pakistan and England ranked eight and sixth in the world respectively, expect a closely-fought series with twists and turns along the way.
