Nottingham:Hosts England take on Pakistan on Monday in Trent Bridge, here, the same venue where Pakistan got bundled out for 105 against the West Indies a couple of days ago.
England made good on their tags as favourites at this ICC Men's Cricket World Cup with a crushing win against South Africa. In contrast, Pakistan lost their 11th straight one-day international when they were blasted apart by West Indies in their opening match.
England will be feeling very confident against Pakistan in this match having soundly beaten them 4-0 in the ODI series before this tournament got underway. With Ben Stokes getting runs, wickets and spectacular catches, and Eoin Morgan, Jason Roy and Joe Root also making fifties they will be thinking they can repeat the results of the very recent past.
For Pakistan, there are some serious question marks. Against the West Indies they were battered and bruised by the short ball, with Andre Russell and Oshane Thomas both having them hopping around.
With England likely to play Liam Plunkett, Jofra Archer and potentially MarkWood, there will be a good chance that a number of short balls at very decent pace will be heading their way.
In the past, it has been the Pakistan's bowling attack that has made up for batting shortfalls but in that ODI series against England last month, they ended up conceding more than 340 four times in a row.
Against the West Indies, an albeit, small total was chased down inside 14 overs. More is needed from their attack if they are to turn things around.
Squads
England: Eoin Morgan (c), Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, JosButtler (wk), Tom Curran, Liam Dawson, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, JoeRoot, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, James Vince, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood
Pakistan:Sarfaraz Ahmed (c, wk), Asif Ali, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi,Mohammad Amir, Babar Azam, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Hasnain,Imam-ul-Haq, Shadab Khan, Shoaib Malik, Wahab Riaz, Haris Sohail, ImadWasim, Fakhar Zaman.(UNI)
