Likely Playing Eleven For Pakistan’s First ODI Against England

Pakistan’s first ODI against England is scheduled to be played today at Oval. So, here is a look at Pakistan’s likely playing eleven for the first of the five games.

Read: Why Pakistan Are Likely To Lose The ODI Series Against England!

Openers

Imam-ul-Haq and Fakhar Zaman despite not being in the best of form are likely to open for the green shirts. However, both of them will be under considerable pressure to deliver results in order to retain their place in the playing eleven.

Read: Talking Points After Pakistan’s T20 Loss Against England

Middle Order

Babar Azam and Haris Sohail being the two most reliable batsmen in the line-up are likely to bat at number 3 and 4 respectively while captain, Sarfraz Ahmed will most probably come in to bat at 5 and will be followed by the big hitter, Asif Ali.

However, if Mohd. Hafeez is fit then he is almost certain to be preferred over Asif and is likely to bat at number 5 in which case Sarfraz might drop himself down to the four down position.

Read: Talking Points After Pakistan Completes Warm-up Matches On Their Tour To England

All-rounders

Pakistan is also expected to play all-rounders Imad Wasim and Faheem Ashraf.

Nevertheless, keeping in view of Faheem’s dismal run in the format, another bad performance will put his place in the playing eleven as well as the world cup squad in jeopardy.

Read: Takeaways From Shahid Afridi’s Autobiography ‘Game Changer’

Bowlers

Hasan Ali and Shaheen Afridi are likely to feature in the side today as Pakistans front-line pacers.

One of the World Cup discards i.e. either Yasir Shah or Mohd. Amir then can also come into the side for today’s game so that the think-tank is able to assess their form once again ahead of the world cup.