England v Pakistan, 1st T20I, Old Trafford – Rehearsals begin for 2021 T20 World Cup
The Pakistan Cricket team will be going from playing one extreme format to the other on their tour of England, as both teams, with a completely different set of squads, look set to lock horns in the 3-match T20 International series starting late in the evening today.
Jason Roy’s side strain might have opened up a door to the opening slot for Tom Banton once again, who would want to make the most out of it. He has not achieved much success in England colours in the shortest format so far, scoring only 56 runs in the T20I series against New Zealand last year, which was followed by an equally underwhelming PSL.
He did show promise in the ODI series against Ireland almost a month ago, and he would want to replicate the kind of form he possessed opening with Babar Azam for Somerset in the T20 Blast last year. Veteran left-hander Dawid Malan, too, would want to pick up from where he left off after the T20 series in New Zealand, where he slammed an explosive unbeaten 51 ball 103, in order to seal that number 3 spot.
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4 years ago, in the same country, after a below-average performance in the ODI series, they thrashed the hosts by 9 wickets, which triggered a staggering run of 29 wins from the 33 succeeding T20I matches over the next 3 years, including 11 series wins. Pakistan would definitely want to pick up the pieces from all the losses from the last 18 months and regain some momentum with two T20 World Cups in the next two years.
Pakistan’s T20I dominance in the past few years began after the thumping victory over England in 2016
Babar Azam would certainly want to justify his number one ranking in T20 Cricket. Despite having a sub-par Test series by his standards, he would want to dominate the T20 series both with the bat and his captaincy. Babar has good memories of playing T20 Cricket in England from last summer, when he racked up 578 runs, the most in the competition, averaging 52.54.
Pakistan have two potential surprise packages in top-order batsman Haider Ali and fast bowler Haris Rauf. Haider Ali, who scored 239 runs in this year’s Pakistan Super League for Peshawar Zalmi, has the capability of being both a dasher or a stroke-maker, depending upon the situation. Haris Rauf lit up the Big Bash League last Australian summer. Replacing Dale Steyn for the Melbourne Stars, he bowled at sheer pace, throwing in a few deceptive variations at times, which earned him 20 wickets in 10 matches, and a call-up to the national side.
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Team News – England:
As mentioned earlier, Jason Roy’s side strain has forced him out of the England side for the rest of the season, and the IPL next month. Tom Banton is the most probable choice to take his spot, partnering Jonny Bairstow at the top. Dawid Malan, who has batted at number 3 for a major part of his domestic Cricketing career, will be comfortable in that spot. England would most probably go for an extra bowler, which would enable Lewis Gregory to make his way into the side.
Probable playing XI:
Tom Banton, Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Eoin Morgan (c), Sam Billings, Moeen Ali, Lewis Gregory, David Willey, Tom Curran, Chris Jordan, Adil Rashid
Team News – Pakistan
Babar Azam will provide stability to a top-order which will be having a dasher in Fakhar Zaman and a youngster in Haider Ali. Rizwan’s stellar performance in the Test series, both with the bat and gloves, and the fact that he is better suited to the T20 format than Sarfaraz will help him gain the wicketkeeper’s slot in the team.
The damp pitch and slow wicket due to the rain will only help Pakistan’s case, who have come into the series with a balanced arsenal of bowlers. The fact that both Naseem Shah and Shaheen Afridi are coming from bowling in all 3 Test matches might tempt the Pakistan camp to rotate their quicks, so there is a chance that Pakistan might be tempted to play the highest wicket-taker in the PSL this year, Mohammad Hasnain.
Probable playing XI:
Babar Azam (c), Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Imad Wasim, Mohammad Amir, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Hasnain
Venue: Old Trafford, Manchester, Lancashire
The damp conditions due to the incessant rain over the last few days will help the slow bowlers a lot. Slower deliveries will be a vital weapon for the quicks due to the fact that the ball would stop on the batsmen. Although a score in excess of 160 is good enough, the side batting first will have to do well to defend on this ground, given its past history of teams winning while chasing.