England bowl, Rashid and Curran in; Pakistan unchanged
Adil Rashid was back after injury • Getty Images
Toss England chose to bowl vs Pakistan
England will bowl first in their opening Tri-Series fixture against Pakistan in Rawalpindi, with Harry Brook keen to profit off the dew expected later in this day-night ODI.
Brook, England's limited-overs captain, called correctly at the toss and made no qualms that the moisture expected in the second innings "will play a factor", with the 1pm start time making it trickier to defend a target later on.
He also confirmed two changes to the XI that closed out the English season at the Kia Oval just 23 days ago to confirm a 2-1 series win over fellow tri-series opponents, Sri Lanka.
Adil Rashid, who missed that series with a hand injury, returns for his 165th ODI, replacing orthodox left-arm spinner Liam Dawson. Another absentee last month, Sam Curran, comes back into the fold after a groin injury. His reintroduction is straightforward with Jofra Archer rested from this tour.
Pakistan are unchanged, with Shaheen Afridi buoyed by a professional start to their campaign, kicking off the three-team festivities on Sunday with a 37-run win over Sri Lanka at this ground. "For the last game we also batted first, so it'll be no different," Afridi said. "The boys have played already on this wicket."
Pakistan's captain cited a T20 against Sri Lanka nine days ago in which the hosts posted 215 for 3 batting first, and will aim to follow suit with another insurmountable first-innings score.
Even the first ODI might have been more of a runfest but for the quicks: the foursome of Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Faheem Ashraf and Afridi kiboshing what had looked a well-managed chase from Sri Lanka. From 210 for 4 chasing 306, they were dismissed for 268.
Pakistan XI: 1 Saim Ayub, 2 Fakhar Zaman, 3 Babar Azam, 4 Saad Baig (wk), 5 Hasan Nawaz, 6 Salman Ali Agha, 7 Arafat Minhas, 8 Faheem Ashraf 9 Shaheen Afridi (capt), 10 Haris Rauf, 11 Naseem Shah
England XI: 1 Tom Banton, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Joe Root, 4 Harry Brook (capt), 5 Jordan Cox (wk), 6 Sam Curran, 7 Will Jacks, 8 Jamie Overton, 9 Gus Atkinson, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Sonny Baker
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