The weather ruined the start of the four-match T20 series between England and Pakistan, which is effectively now truncated to three with the opener being washed out in Leeds a few days ago. The teams have been training for a better part of the last week and will be itching to get out on the field and get some game time ahead of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024 set to kick off next week in the Caribbean and the United States. Both teams will not be playing warm-ups and hence would want to get as much as they can out of these three matches in terms of combinations, team balance and trying out a few players, who haven't had much cricket of late.
Edgbaston is fairly clear, even though there are clouds, rain is unlikely to be a factor on Saturday, May 25 in the second T20I and a full 40-over game is on the cards. England players are coming off an elongated passage of cricket from the IPL while Pakistan have played a lot of T20 cricket in the last couple of months. Yes, Pakistan did win a series against Ireland but batting first and defending a score still remains their Achilles Heel and with Haris Rauf now available, Pakistan would want to go all-out attack against England.
More than the results, the series is more like a dress-rehearsal for the T20 World Cup and if they do get a few things right, Pakistan will be confident going into the tournament while for England, the spotlight will be on Jofra Archer and how he goes about his business after another lengthy layoff.
My Dream team for ENG vs PAK 2nd T20I
Jos Buttler, Phil Salt, Mohammad Rizwan, Will Jacks (vc), Moeen Ali, Iftikhar Ahmed, Sam Curran, Shadab Khan (c), Shaheen Afridi, Jofra Archer, Mohammad Amir
Squads
Pakistan: Mohammad Rizwan, Saim Ayub, Babar Azam(c), Fakhar Zaman, Azam Khan(w), Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Amir, Naseem Shah, Shadab Khan, Abrar Ahmed, Abbas Afridi, Irfan Khan, Usman Khan, Agha Salman
England: Jos Buttler(w/c), Philip Salt, Will Jacks, Jonny Bairstow, Harry Brook, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Chris Jordan, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Reece Topley, Mark Wood, Ben Duckett, Liam Livingstone, Tom Hartley
