Pitch and weather: The pitch is likely to be another MCG 2.0 offering based on how it looked while uncovered 24 hours out – with Victoria’s damp early-season conditions enhancing the pace and bounce on offer to the seamers, in a significant improvement on the moribund drop-in offerings of years gone by. As Pakistan and India proved in their epic group-stage tussle, wickets in the powerplay are to be expected, and a target of 160-odd is likely to be challenging – even Ireland’s 157 proved sufficient to topple a ponderous England in their rain-affected clash at the venue.
This strip does appear to have a little less grass, but there is still more coverage than what is normally seen in January in the BBL. The trouble is… that forecast is not encouraging. A reserve day on Monday has been factored in, with a start time of 5 pm (4 am GMT) to allow as much time as possible for a result. But the omens are not entirely promising.
Pakistan vs England Highlights today. Final (N), Melbourne Cricket Ground, Sunday 13-11-2022, ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022.
Toss: England will bowl first.
“Huge game, good nerves, good energy around the team and in the stadium,” says Jos Buttler. “Both teams in red-hot form, looks like a good wicket, a bit of weather around which is why we bowled first.”
Unchanged team for England, so no Wood, no Willey, no Malan. Jordan and Salt play.
Babar would have bowled first, “we’ll try to put runs on the board and put pressure on. The way the team is playing is outstanding. History repeats [from 1992]… we’ll do our best.”
Pakistan team: 1 Babar Azam (capt), 2 Mohammad Rizwan (wk), 3 Mohammad Haris, 4 Shan Masood, 5 Iftikhar Ahmed, 6 Mohammad Nawaz, 7 Shadab Khan, 8 Mohammad Wasim, 9 Naseem Shah, 10 Haris Rauf, 11 Shaheen Shah Afridi.
England team: 1 Jos Buttler (capt & wk), 2 Alex Hales, 3 Phil Salt, 4 Ben Stokes, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Liam Livingstone, 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Sam Curran, 9 Chris Woakes, 10 Chris Jordan, 11 Adil Rashid.
Head to Head In T20I’s: 28
Pakistan Won: 9
England Won: 18
Pakistan T20I Rankings: 3rd
England T20I Rankings: 2nd
ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 Points Table
Form guide
(last five completed T20I’s, most recent first)
Pakistan WWWWL
England WWWLW
Match Timings: 08:00 AM GMT | 07:00 PM Local
Umpires – Kumar Dharmasena, Marais Erasmus
TV Umpire – Chris Gaffaney
Match Referee – Ranjan Madugalle
Reserve Umpire – Paul Reiffel
Match number – T20I no. 1878
Sonu