England prepare to take on Pakistan in 1st T20
England take on Pakistan this afternoon in the first of two Twenty20 internationals, and will be looking for a strong performance against a team reeling from a tough tour of Australia.
Pakistan failed to win a single match against the Aussies in a tour which included three Test matches and five One Day Internationals. That said, Pakistan are the reigning T20 World Champions, so should not be taken lightly.
They will be without big-hitter Shahid Afridi who is serving a two-match ban for ball-tampering, with Shoaib Malik taking over captaincy duties determined to get his team back to winning ways before the next World Cup in the West Indies at the end of April.
Meanwhile, England have announced their own intentions ahead of the World Cup, with coach Peter Moores stating that his team needs to focus on this format of the game, and these two games are the last T20 matches before they head to the West Indies.
They lost to England’s second string side on Wednesday, the England Lions, and have ruled out promoting South African-born Craig Kieswetter to the side. Joe Denly and Jonathan Trott are set to open the batting as usual, but who would bet against Kieswetter featuring in the World Cup?
The game takes place at 13.30 GMT today and everyone at The Cricket Blog is excited. We’ll have all the reaction and opinion after the game, so feel free to share your views.
