The first of three one day internationals between England and Pakistan takes place at Cardiff on Thursday and we take a look at the squads, recent form and the all important betting which has the home side as shot price favourites.
This is a 3 match series to be followed by 3 T20's and we begin with a look at the ODI squads.
Note, since this preview was first published a Covid outbreak has led to England naming a much changed squad, now led by Ben Stokes
England: Ben Stokes, 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: Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Abdullah Shafique, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali , Haris Rauf, Haris Sohail, Hasan Ali , Imam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper), Salman Ali Agha, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wicketkeeper), Saud Shakeel, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Usman Qadir
Recent Form
England
England have just completed a 2-0 series win over Sri Lanka, winning the first match by 5 wickets and the second by 8 wickets. They bowled Sri Lanka out for 166 in the third and final match on Sunday but the heavens opened, denying them the likelihood of a clean sweep.
England were in India in March for a 3 match series which they lost 2-1.
Pakistan
Pakistan were in South Africa in April and they won a 3 match series 2-1. They won the opening contest by 3 wickets, lost the second by 17 runs and won the decider by 28 runs.
Recent Head to Head
Overall the teams have met 88 times with England winning 53, Pakistan have won 32 and there have been 3 no results.
The most recent series between these teams came in May 2019 in England. No result was possible in the first first match, England won each of the next 4 and
Pakistan gained a consolation win in the final match of the series.
The Venue, Sofia Gardens Cardiff
England have have won 8 of 14 ODI's staged at this venue with 3 defeats and 3 no results.
The most recent ODI on this ground came in the CWC 2019 and England thrashed Bangladesh by 106 runs with Jason Roy scoring 153 of their bat first total of 386/6
In June 2017 Pakistan beat England by 8 wickets on this ground.
You can check the weather forecast here
The Betting
The betting is much changedd on the team news and England are currently trading at around 11/10 to win the game and Pakistan can be backed at around 0.72/1
Babar Azam is 19/10 to top score for Pakistan with Imam-ul-haq 3.35/1 and Mohammad Rizwan and Fakhar Zaman are 7/2
Note all prices are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
The Verdict
In view of the team news I will swerve the England top bat and ball markets and stick with my original pick as Pakistan top bat. Fakhar Zaman scored 303 series runs including an amazing knock of 193 in the recent tour of South Africa and he could be worth following.
Bets: Top Pakistan bat Fakhar Zaman at 7/2
Note all prices are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
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