T20
England v Pakistan 1st T20 preview: England to get back in the white-ball swing
England begin their international summer schedule with a four-game series against Pakistan in preparation for next month’s T20 World Cup.
It’ll be England’s first T20 action this calendar year, and since their shock 3-2 series defeat to the West Indies, just a month after a similarly disappointing group stage exit in the ODI World Cup.
We preview the action from the first match at Headingley on Wednesday below.
England v Pakistan – Wednesday 18:30
England look to young blood
England have transitioned from arguably one of the most impressive white ball outfits in the history of the game to a team on the ropes in the short format, exemplified by their aforementioned shortcomings in last year’s ICC World Cup and subsequent series defeat to the West Indies. Whereas the Test side has begun to settle both in terms of selection and balance, their T20 line up in particular runs deep but doesn’t appear to have a defined XI in place.
Wednesday’s series opener against a vibrant Pakistan side will certainly provide some insight as to where England are as a T20 team. The likes of Jason Roy and Dawid Malan have been moved on from the squad, but that has provided the opportunity for Phil Salt and Will Jacks to stake their claim for a starting place – both of whom have been in eye-catching form in this season’s Indian Premier League. England will also welcome back Jofra Archer for the first time since 2022, so there is plenty to be optimistic about despite the nature of recent results.
Salt and Jacks are both in the top three in the betting to be England’s top run scorer on Wednesday, trading at 29/10 and 10/3 respectively to start the summer strongly at Headingley. Three Lions skipper Jos Buttler leads the betting at 21/10 despite some inconsistent form for the Rajasthan Royals recently, although that has admittedly included two centuries since the tournament started, so it seems Buttler tends to go big or go out early in this kind of nick.
Pakistan need to find equilibrium again
Pakistan’s players don’t have the luxury of being able to showcase their form in the IPL for political reasons, so there might be a bit of rustiness for their highly competent white-ball outfit to shake off upon being exposed to the best of the best. Their five-match series against New Zealand last month (which finished 2-2) shouldn’t be taken too seriously – that was a C-list New Zealand line up at best.
Pakistan similarly failed to qualify from the group stage in their ICC World Cup campaign and have endured farcical captaincy issues over the past few months – giving skipper duties to Shaheen Afridi upon Babar Azam’s resignation from the role, only to reinstate Babar two months later following their series against New Zealand. What was once perceived to be a tight-knit and well-balanced squad has certainly lost some momentum over the past 12 months.
At the risk of sounding cliched, you can, however, never rule out Pakistan in international tournaments. In the aforementioned Afridi and Babar they have two of the finest white ball players on the planet and possess arguably the fastest seam attack of the 20 nations heading to the Caribbean and United States next month.
Looking ahead to Wednesday, Afridi is 17/10 to take the most wickets for the visitors at Headingley, with the ferocious Haris Rauf the 29/20 market favourite. From a batting perspective, Pakistan will turn to wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan (9/5) and Babar (19/10) to rack up the most runs on their card and try to put an England bowling attack lacking in match fitness on the back foot.
