Pakistan hope to exploit home-like conditions

Tourists to go all out for win against an aggressive England side in series-opening ODI today

SOUTHAMPTON, England: The sun continues to shine on Pakistan in England.

After enduring a few wet and cold days in Ireland, Pakistan were welcomed back in England with glorious, sunny conditions in Southampton where they hope to open their challenging ODI campaign against the hosts with a bang on Wednesday (today).

The weather is almost like it was at The Oval during the best part of the fourth and final Test which Pakistan won by ten wickets to square the four-match series 2-2. With the sun smiling on them, Younis Khan cracked a double century before leggie Yasir Shah finished off England to complete a morale-boosting win. Later, The Oval result together with rain in Trinidad where India failed to win the series 3-0, helped Pakistan to top the Test rankings for the first time.

Pakistan will be hoping to once again exploit warm and dry conditions that suit them.

While Younis is not part of their ODI side, they have the option of Yasir joining all-rounders Shoaib Malik, Imad Wasim and Mohammad Nawaz to form a spin quartet.

“We are keeping our options open,” Team Manager Intikhab told ‘The News’. “The idea is to play the best possible side according to the conditions. We will wait till tomorrow morning to decide the line-up.”

Whatever the line-up, Pakistan face an uphill task against an England side that has carved a reputation of being an all-attacking unit after an embarrassingly bad showing at last year’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

England exhibited their newly-found killer instinct against Sri Lanka earlier this season. At Trent Bridge they came back from the jaws of defeat to earn a tie before thrashing the visitors in the next three games. They chased down 255 without loss at Edgbaston and 308 in 40 overs at The Oval to stamp their authority on Sri Lanka.

In contrast, Pakistan have been below-par in limited-overs formats in recent years and need to really lift their game in the next 12 months to be able to qualify directly.

They will have to deal with the lightning pace of pacer Mark Wood, who is back in fray for England after having missed international action since last October because of an ankle problem. He is expected to replace David Willey, who is nursing a hand injury.

Together with Wood, pacer Liam Plunkett is expected to open the bowling for England. It will be a tough challenge for Pakistan’s openers Sharjeel Khan and Azhar Ali.

But Azhar is confident that both he and Sharjeel are up to the task.

“Sharjeel is a match-winner and if he bats the way he batted against Ireland then we will have a good chance,” said Azhar referring to the left-hander’s match-winning 152 in a 255-run thrashing or Ireland in Dublin last week.

It’s a day-night match and it will be the first time that Pakistan will be playing under light since arriving here in June.

The Ageas Bowl has the highest run-rate for any English ground and in sunny conditions should offer plenty of runs.

Morgan, who is facing a lean patch with the bat, is expecting a tough fight from Pakistan.

“It will be a very tough series against Pakistan, especially as the recent weather means conditions may suit them more than they suit us initially. It is a good test leading into the winter.”

Teams (likely):

Pakistan: Sharjeel Khan, Azhar Ali (captain), Mohammad Hafeez, Babar Azam, Shoaib Malik, Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), 7 Mohammad Nawaz/Imad Wasim, 8 Wahab Riaz, Umar Gul, Yasir Shah, Mohammad Amir.

England: Alex Hales, Jason Roy, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan (captain), Ben Stokes, 6 Jos Buttler (wk), Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid, Liam Plunkett, Mark Wood.

Today’s match

Pakistan vs England 06:00 pm (PST)