Last Updated on 3 months by Charbel Coorey

ENG vs PAK 1st T20 Dream11 Prediction Possible Playing 11 Pitch Report | ENG vs PAK 1st T20 Dream11 Prediction Today | England vs Pakistan 1st T20I Key Players | Trent Bridge Pitch Report

After the brilliant win in the three-match ODI series with a second string team, England are favourites for T20I series too. With some key players coming back for the T20I series, the Three Lions would be looking for another dominating win over a sub-continental team as they look to ramp up their T20 World Cup preparations.

Eoin Morgan is back after the self-isolation period. Other key players are also back, with two new guys – Saqib Mahmood and Lewis Gregory – rewarded for their terrific performance in the ODI series. After watching the second team dominate Pakistan, England will be keen to transfer that form to the T20Is. However, given their opponents’ unpredictability, nothing is set in stone.

After a 3-0 defeat in the ODI series, Pakistan will be motivated to overturn their fortunes in the three-match T20I series. There were plenty of encouraging signs for Pakistan in the final ODI, and in spite of a fresh and more talented England team as opponents, Pakistan should be at their most confident on the tour. They have a strong squad and are in good form in this format, but will be looking to solve three key issues in their T20 game.

An exciting contest ahead.

Match Details 

• Match: ENG vs PAK, 1st T20I, Pakistan tour of England, 2021
• Date and Time: Friday, July 16, 2021. 11:00 PM (IST).
• Venue: Trent Bridge, Nottingham

Key Players to Watch/Key Stats

England:

• Jos Buttler – The BOSS is back in the team and is all set to fire-up as opener. The WK batsman missed a major part of the series against Sri Lanka due to injury. He has a terrific record on this ground in ODIs (8 inns, 439 runs, avg. 73.16, SR 120.27), so will be looking to transfer this to T20s.
• Jonny Bairstow –  The Yorkshireman is comfortable in any of the top four places in England’s batting line-up. He is coming in with great form as well. He has scored 134 runs in six innings at avg. of 32.57 and SR of 123.58 against PAK.
• Dawid Malan, the top-ranked T20I batsman, will be key. He scored 78* (46) in his last T20I vs Sri Lanka, and also scored a half-century in his last T20I vs Pakistan (54* off 36 balls).
• Eoin Morgan is back in form with his brilliant half-century in the ODIs against SL. He has played the most matches and has the most runs among all players in ENGvsPAK T20Is. 390 runs in 15 matches are those numbers, with 66 off 33 balls in his last T20I vs Pakistan.
• The new comer, Lewis Gregory has some real talent and he proved that in the recent ODI series. We can look at him as Sam Curran’s replacement as he can score some runs while batting. He is an inform player with four wickets in three innings and 117 runs in two innings in the most recent ODI series against Pakistan.
• Saqib Mahmood is having a superb year in white-ball cricket. He is coming off 4/42, 2/21 and 3/60 in the ODI series.

Pakistan: 

• The 2nd ranked T20I batsman is coming off great form with his career best score (158) in the third ODI. When we talk about T20Is against England, Babar Azam is only behind Hafeez in the current Pakistan squad. The skipper has 157 runs to his name in four innings at an avg. of 52.33.
• Pakistan’s wicket keeper batsman Mohammad Rizwan has been in dream form in T20s. After having a great PSL and SA series, he is all set to take on England in his favourite form of cricket. He scored a brilliant half century in the last ODI against England. 
• Mohammad Hafeez was the star for Pakistan in the T20Is vs England last year. He struck 155 runs in three T20Is at a superb strike rate of 176.13, and was dismissed just once.
• 22 year-old allrounder Shadab Khan has some good numbers against England in T20Is. He has five wickets in three innings to his name. He can also contribute runs with the bat.
• Haris Rauf – the fast bowler had a successful day in Birmingham in the final ODI with four wickets. He had a fine PSL season and now he has to resist the aggressive nature of English hitters. He can give some little batting cameos as well.
• Shaheen Shah Afridi needs to perform like T20 legend Shahid Afridi against England. He has to lead his bowling attack with some early wickets. The better he performs, the chances of PAK win increase. He took two wickets in three T20Is vs England last year (avg. 41.00), so he will be hoping for an improvement.

Stats and Facts

• Head to Head: Matches 18, England 11, Pakistan 5, Tie 1 (ENG WON), NR 1.
• Last 5 matches: England 2, Pakistan 2, NR 1.
• England have won one T20I out of two on this ground. Pakistan won their single T20I at Trent Bridge to date.
• Sohaib Maqsood had a strike rate of over 150 in the PSL.
• Jos Buttler will be returning to the team after a short break due to a calf injury. Sam Billings is out of the whole series as he is rested after testing positive to Covid-19.
• The interesting battle between the 1st ranked (Dawid Malan) and 2nd ranked (Babar Azam) T20I batsmen is on the cards. It will be interesting to see who scores more in the match and the series as well.

Squads

England: Eoin Morgan (Captain), Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Jake Ball, Tom Banton, Jos Buttler, Tom Curran, Lewis Gregory, Chris Jordan, Liam Livingstone, Saqib Mahmood, Dawid Malan, Matt Parkinson, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, David Willey

Paul Collingwood will oversee the team as head coach with Chris Silverwood to take a break.

Pakistan:  Babar Azam (Captain), Fakhar Zaman, Sharjeel Khan, Sohaib Maqsood, Mohammed Hafeez, Usman Qadir, Shadab Khan, Faheem Ashraf, Imad Wasim, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Azam Khan, Mohammed Rizwan, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Arshad Iqbal, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Mohammed Hasnain, Shaheen Afridi.

Possible Playing 11

England: 1. Jos Buttler (wk), 2. Jason Roy, 3. Dawid Malan, 4. Jonny Bairstow, 5. Eoin Morgan (c), 6. Liam Livingstone/Moeen Ali,  7. Lewis Gregory, 8. Chris Jordan, 9. Saqib Mahmood, 10. Jake Ball/David Willey, 11. Adil Rashid

Hasan Ali is out of this match due to a slight strain in his left leg. Pakistan could opt for Shahnawaz Dahani, who took the most wickets in PSL 2021 (20).

Pakistan: 1. Mohammad Rizwan (wk), 2. Babar Azam (c), 3. Fakhar Zaman, 4. Mohammad Hafeez, 5. Sohaib Maqsood, 6. Shadab Khan, 7. Faheem Ashraf, 8. Imad Wasim/Mohammad Nawaz, 9. Shahnawaz Dahani/Mohammad Hasnain, 10. Shaheen Afridi, 11. Haris Rauf

Trent Bridge Pitch Report and Weather

This is the first T20I game at this venue since June 2012. Trent Bridge usually provides a good batting surface, and reports suggest it will be more of the same here, along with the short boundaires. This is despite plenty of rain in recent times.

Trent Bridge has a run rate of 8.70 in T20 cricket over the past four years, which is the fourth-highest of any ground in the world.

The temperature will be around 25 degrees at the start of the game, dipping to the low 20s as the match progresses. Some clouds may be present during the match, but conditions should be fine.

Dream11 Prediction

Option 1:

Option 2:

Match Prediction

England’s elite players are back in the squad, and their team looks even stronger. So I am expecting England to win.