Pakistan v England, 2nd ODI, Abu Dhabi
Pakistan make three changes, England bat first
The Report by Andrew McGlashan
February 15, 2012
England won the toss and decided to bat against Pakistan
If the opening one-day international was any indication, Alastair Cook made a significant early call by winning the toss in Abu Dhabi and again batting first. Under lights on Monday, England's pace bowlers, especially Steven Finn, proved too much for Pakistan as the ball zipped around.
England named an unchanged team as they search for a 2-0 lead with Tim Bresnan remaining on the sidelines. Pakistan, though, have shuffled their pack with three alterations to their eleven. Azhar Ali, who had an impressive Test series, replaces Asad Shafiq, Abdur Rehman comes in for Shoaib Malik and Wahab Riaz, after an expensive display two days ago, misses out in favour of Aizaz Cheema.
The presence of Rehman will rekindle memories of the Test series where he caused the England batsmen plenty of problems. That was especially the case for Kevin Pietersen who is under pressure to make a major contribution opening the batting.
Umar Akmal has been passed fit to continue the wicketkeeping role after suffering a back problem during the opening game, but Pakistan do have quite a lengthy lower order with Shahid Afridi now pencilled in to bat at No. 7. Misbah-ul-Haq didn't hide the fact he wanted to bat first and his batsmen will be under pressure to atone in the evening run chase.
Pakistan 1 Mohammad Hafeez, 2 Imran Farhat, 3 Azhar Ali, 4 Younis Khan, 5 Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), 6 Umar Akmal (wk) 7 Shahid Afridi, 8 Abdur Rehman, 9 Umar Gul, 10 Saeed Ajmal, 11 Aizaz Cheema
England 1 Alastair Cook (capt), 2 Kevin Pietersen, 3 Jonathan Trott, 4 Ravi Bopara, 5 Eoin Morgan, 6 Craig Kieswetter (wk), 7 Samit Patel, 8 Stuart Broad, 9 Graeme Swann, 10 James Anderson 11 Steven Finn
Andrew McGlashan is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo
| Abdur Rehman has been recalled as Pakistan try to level the one-day series |
