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ENG vs PAK 1st ODI Dream11 Prediction Possible Playing 11 Pitch Report | ENG vs PAK 1st ODI Dream11 Prediction Today | England vs Pakistan 1st ODI Key Players | Cardiff Pitch Report

The first match of Pakistan’s tour of England is set to be played at Cardiff on Thursday, and it has taken a remarkable turn. After seven team members tested positive for Covid-19, England need to play the series with a newly announced squad consisting as many as seven uncapped players. Star all-rounder Ben Stokes will be making his comeback to International cricket in the 1st match, and he will lead Team England as well.

On the other hand, Pakistan – the well and fully equipped side – will look forward to grab the win over the hosts in the absence of their main players. Pakistan team management will be feeling a little bit more happy as they have a chance to clinch the series against the lesser-experienced team.

Recently, England defeated Sri Lanka by 2-0 in a 3 match ODI series – but with another squad – which is now in self isolation. However, with nine uncapped players in the current squad, the job for the hosts looks a bit challenging and especially for captain Ben Stokes. Pakistan also have won their last ODI series (2-1) they played against Proteas team back in April.

So this is going to be an interesting contest of inexperience but excitement against experience and talent.

Match Details

• Match: ENG vs PAK, 1st ODI, Pakistan tour of England, 2021
• Date and time: Thursday, July 08, 2021. 5.30 PM (IST)
• Venue: Sophia Gardens, Cardiff

Key Players/Key Stats

 England:

• Captain Ben Stokes has to be at his best to help his team hold well against a quite strong and experienced team. He will be making his return to Intl. cricket after a quite long gap of 3 months and he is set to captain his team in ODIs for the first time. Talking about Ben vs PAK in ODI’s, he has scored 377 runs in 9 innings at avg. of 53.85 and has also scalped a wicket. He is expected to perform brilliantly as an all rounder and hence to lead his side from the front.
• England’s T20I specialist Dawid Johannes Malan is set to play his 4th international ODI on Thursday. He has scored 90 runs in 3 ODIs he has played till today. So he will look to get more runs through this series which might help him to cement his place in 1st choice ODI 11.
• 26 years old WK batsman Ben Duckett is set to make his return to ODI playing 11 since 2016 and will be aiming towards grabbing this beautiful opportunity. The talented lefty batsman has scored 123 with 2 50’s in 3 games. He is also expected to keep wickets for the hosts.
• Lancashire man Saqib Mahmood, who made his ODI debut in early 2020, will be very happy to be back in the England fold. He has scalped 5 wickets in 4 matches he has played with economy 4.75. He also enjoyed a superb first half of PSL 2021 earlier this year.

Pakistan:

• Mohammed Rizwan and Babar Azam set up fireworks for their respective teams in PSL and with them playing together, it could be a nightmare for the opposition bowlers. Both of them are the main pillars of Pakistan’s batting. 
• Rizwan has not been really good against England, but he is coming with great form and he can destroy the inexperienced England Bowling lineup. Whereas Babar has scored as many as 639 runs in 16 innings against England and will be looking to get more. 
• Imam ul Haq has really been good against England in ODis so far. He has played only 5 games against them and scored 278 runs at a brilliant average of 92.66. If he gets good starts then he has the ability to make those big ones which could be a worrying thing for hosts. 
• Hasan Ali will lead his team’s bowling attack. He could be that key factor for Pakistan who can change the game within an over or two. Besides that he has sent 14 Englishmen to the pavilion in a total of 10 innings. He can also provide some little cameos in the batting section. 
• England’s conditions will suit Shaheen Afridi, who could rattle the top order single-handedly with his pace and swing. He has taken 5 wickets in 3 innings that he played against England. He has quite a good record in England as well with 21 wickets in 8 innings, where he enjoyed a fine 2019 World Cup. 
• Haris Rauf is an underrated bowler who had a good series against South Africa, where he ended up as the joint leading wicket-taker with 7 scalps.

Stats and Facts

• Head to Head: Matches 88, England 53, Pakistan 32, NR 3.
• Last 5 matches: England 4, Pakistan 1.
• Last time Pakistan won an ODI bilateral series against England was way back in the 2005-06 series.
• Ben Stokes will be leading England for the very first time in ODIs.
• England have won 8 matches out of 14 at Cardiff and 3 matches finished as a no result. On the other hand Pakistan have won 3 matches out of 5 they played there, where 1 was a NR. 
• This will be the first match after 2015 that England will play an ODI without Eoin Morgan and Jos Buttler in the playing XI.
• Ben Stokes’ total experience of 98 matches in ODIs is more than double of the other 17 members of the revised ODI squad (48 ODIs).

Squads

England

Ben Stokes (c), Jake Ball, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Phil Salt, Daniel Lawrence, Dawid Malan, James Vince, Will Jacks, Brydon Carse, Lewis Gregory, Craig Overton, David Payne, John Simpson, Danny Briggs, Matt Parkinson, Tom Helm and Saqib Mahmood

Pakistan

Babar Azam (c), Abdullah Shafique, Fakhar Zaman, Imam ul Haq, Sohaib Maqsood, Haris Sohail, Agha Salman, Saud Shakeel, Hasan Ali, Usman Qadir, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Faheem Ashraf, Mohammad Rizwan, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Hasnain and Shaheen Afridi

Possible Playing 11

England: 1. Ben Duckett (wk), 2. James Vince, 3. Dawid Malan, 4. Ben Stokes (c), 5. Daniel Lawrence, 6. Will Jacks, 7. Lewis Gregory, 8. Craig Overton, 9. Matt Parkinson, 10. Jake Ball, 11. Saqib Mahmood

Pakistan: 1. Fakhar Zaman, 2. Imam ul Haq, 3. Babar Azam (c), 4. Mohammad Rizwan (wk), 5. Sohaib Maqsood, 6. Haris Sohail/Shadab Khan, 7. Faheem Ashraf, 8. Hasan Ali, 9. Shaheen Shah Afridi, 10. Shadab Khan, 11. Haris Rauf

Cardiff Pitch Report and Weather

The teams chasing have a history of winning more matches here. It’s a flat deck with a good carry and bounce. The bowlers should use the short balls very effectively on this wicket. However, the spinners could play a major role in the middle overs, especially with the pitch getting slower as the match progresses. Anything over 280 will be a competitive score.

There will be some periods of sun with a couple of showers throughout the day. The highest temperature will expectedly be around 21 degrees Celsius and dip to 13 degrees lowest. With this being a day and night fixture, both teams will ideally look to chase upon winning the toss.

Dream11 Prediction

Option 1:

Option 2:

(Tip: While selecting your fantasy team, make sure that you have selected all players who are part of playing 11’s. For that kindly edit it after the toss.)

Match Prediction

With advantage of more experience and confidence, I think Pakistan will take the lead of 1-0.

Written by Aditya Narsale. Follow Aditya on Twitter today.