Pakistan tour of England 2021 News

Pakistan skipper Babar Azam and his deputy Mohammad Rizwan believe that their team is making progress from the ODI series debacle early this month against a second-string England side. The 31 run victory against a full-strength English side in the first T20I at Nottingham was a testament to that. The Men in Green move to Headingley in Leeds for the second T20I with a hope to seal the series and the two leaders in Babar and Rizwan believe that they can do it. “See mistakes happen, but as was visible we improved on all three aspects of the game and especially fielding. Only those teams progress which learn from their mistakes and as you can see we are putting in all the efforts to do so,” Babar said in a video uploaded by the Pakistan Cricket Board on their official Twitter handle. “Hopefully, with God’s grace, we will carry this momentum and win the series in the next game,” added the 26-year-old skipper. Rizwan too seconded his skipper saying that all the players showed great form in the last game and the team would like them to carry it. The duo added 150 for the first wicket at Trent Bridge and was one of the main reasons for Pakistan reaching its highest ever total in T20Is. Speaking about their second 150 partnership as a pair (they have also added 197 against South Africa), Babar, who scored 85 off just 49 balls said that the idea was to assess the conditions initially and then go for the big shots. “Once we got the hang of its (wicket) behaviour, I took the charge as Raazi Bhai (Mohammad Rizwan) was initially struggling a bit. We decided to take it 8-10 runs per over and make a big partnership so that it gets easier for the guys coming in,” he said. Rizwan, agreeing to it says that in their partnerships, “Whenever one of us decides to go for power hitting, we discuss it among ourselves first.” Talking about the communication in the middle between the two, Babar got a bit cheeky saying, “See the communication is such that we don’t even call sometimes, a simple glance is indicative enough to go for the run.” The second game in Leeds would be a day game on Sunday, July 18.

It took Pakistan to score its highest ever total in T20Is to deny a rampant Liam Livingstone from snatching away a sensational victory for his team single-handedly. The Lancashire lad first scored the fastest fifty for England in T20Is, coming off just 17 balls and then converted it into the fastest hundred as he took 25 more balls to reach his hundred. He broke Dawid Malan’s record of 48 ball hundred. But all that wasn’t enough as Shadab Khan kept chipping away with wickets while Mohammad Hasnain and Shaheen Shah Afridi kept moving the required run rate higher than the scoring run rate with their tight bowling. Eventually, even after never bothering to slow down right from the start of their chase, England bundled out for 201 and lost the game by 31 runs. Along with Livingstone, Jason Roy (32 from 13 balls) was the only other English batter who seemed to have got going while the rest faltered after hitting a boundary or two. For the Men in Green though, apart from Shadab, Shaheen too took three wickets and gave away only 30 runs in his 3.2 overs to be named Man of the Match. Earlier in the day, Babar Azam was at his very best as the skipper carried his form from Birmingham to Nottingham, hitting 85 off just 49 balls to carry Pakistan to its highest ever T20I total. He got ample support from the likes of Mohamad Rizwan (63 off 41), Sohaib Maqsood (19 off 7), Fakhar Zaman (26 off 8) and Mohammad Hafeez (24 off 10) at the beginning and end of the innings as the hosts garnered 152 runs in the last 10 overs. Babar, who sounded frustrated in the three ODIs was happy with the win. Speaking in the post-match presentation, he said, “I spoke about not repeating the mistakes. In the T20s, you need to take quick decisions, you gotta enjoy your cricket. We gave 100% in all departments. We'll look to build on the momentum and continue playing the way we did.” English skipper Morgan, who experimented by resting a few of his main players like Adil Rashid, Chris Jordan and Jos Buttler, still chose to look at the positives from the game. He credited Livingstone for his brilliant performance and said that his side was on track for the T20 World Cup preparations. “There were a lot of positives, this ground replicates Sharjah where we might play World Cup games. It's good to be under pressure to find out more about the team. Liam, an incredible knock, over the last six years as a group we've watched incredible knocks from Buttler, Roy, Ali, that was as good as any of them," said the 34-year-old. The two teams would now travel to Headingley in Leeds for the second T20I on Sunday, July 18 with Pakistan looking to seal the series and compensate for the ODI horror show. England on the other hand would bank themselves to make a strong comeback.

England all-rounder Ben Stokes conceded that his finger has not healed perfectly and that he would not have come back so quickly into the England team in “normal circumstances”. Stokes was hurried back to lead the side against Pakistan in the aftermath of the Covid-19 crisis in England camp that forced the entire squad including the skipper, Eoin Morgan, into quarantine. Writing a column for The Daily Mail, Stokes has said that his finger has healed “structurally” but he had to endure all the “ridiculous pain” to lead the England team. "It was a totally unexpected set of games for me and the truth is I would never have played under normal circumstances due to how much pain I was in with my left index finger. The surgery was a success after I had broken it at the IPL, but it was still so painful,” Stokes wrote in his Daily Mirror column. "Sometimes though you just have to grin and bear it, and captaining England is one of those reasons. The finger has healed structurally, but the pain was just ridiculous for where it should be so that is why I have now had an injection to ease it for the rest of the summer. Stokes went back to rest while Morgan has returned to lead the side in the T20 series against Pakistan and the all-rounder has expressed hope that the pain will not come in between him and The Hundred. He also expressed “desperation” to do well against India in the series starting early next month and said that he hopes the pain will subside by the time series will start. "I've got a bit of a break now, which should give the steroids time to take effect and allow me to play pain-free in the Hundred and then against India. Hopefully, my finger won't be a problem by the time the India Test series comes around, because that is a huge series and one we are all desperate to perform well in,” Stokes added. Notably, Stokes had fractured his finger while fielding for the Rajasthan Royals in the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League earlier this year.

It seems to be a day of records today in cricket as Liam Livingstone recorded the fastest century for an England batsman in T20I cricket when he whacked Shadab Khan for six over long-on. The 27-year-old hit the century of 42 balls. He surpassed Dawid Malan’s 48-ball century against New Zealand at Napier in 2019. However, the Lancashire man miscued one-off Shadab, on the very next ball, to end his night on 103. Livingstone hit six fours and nine sixes, but could not take England home while chasing the target of 233 set up by Pakistan at Trent Bridge, Nottingham. The partnership between Livingstone and Morgan was 51 runs before Morgan was caught at deep square leg off the bowling off Imad Wasim. The English team still needs 81 runs off 36 balls with Livingstone and Lewis Gregory at the crease and five wickets in hand. Earlier today, Pakistan registered its highest ever total in T20Is while Ireland batsman Simi Singh hit the highest runs for a number eight batsman in ODIs. He achieved this feat against South Africa in Dublin. In another match between Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, Shakib Al Hasan became the highest wicket-taker for the Tigers in ODI cricket as he surpassed Mashrafe Mortaza’s 269 wickets by taking a five-for and getting to 274 wickets in only his 213th match.

Pakistan equalled its record of most sixes in an innings as they hit 12 of them against England in the first match of the three-match ODI series against England at Trent Bridge, Nottingham. The 12 sixes that they hit is equal to what they had hit against Bangladesh in Nairobi in 2007. The team also recorded its highest ever total in T20Is, scoring 232-6 in their allotted 20 overs. They surpassed their previous high score of 205-3 which they had achieved against Bangladesh and West Indies in 2008 and 2018 respectively. On their way to this, the Men in Green hit 20 fours as well. Skipper Babar Azam top-scored with 85 from 49 balls as he and wicket-keeper batsman Mohammad Rizwan recorded 150 runs partnership for the opening wicket. This is the second-highest partnership for any wicket by a Pakistani pair. Rizwan scored 63 off 42 balls. The rest of the batters in the lower order including Sohaib Maqsood, Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez and debutant Azam Khan played their roles as they chipped in with quick runs. In the end, the team ended up scoring 152 runs in the last 10 overs to get to 232-6. For England, all the bowlers were naturally expensive. Tom Curran picked two wickets while David Willey, Lewis Gregory and Saqib Mahmood got one wicket each while spinners Matt Parkinson and Liam Livingstone remained wicketless. In response to that, England have started well and are hitting sixes all over the ground reaching to 82 in just the seventh over, but have lost four wickets in the process as well.

Former Pakistan pacer Aaqib Javed has lashed out at the Pakistan team management for not having a proper policy or plans in place for the national team. He also took a direct dig at the national team players calling them wrestlers more than cricketers in the current T20 team. The former fast bowler had earlier worked with the Pakistan U 19 team as the head coach and the senior team as the bowling coach. He also raised question marks on the fitness levels of certain players and how they were making the squad. "They don't know what they are doing or what is their direction. I see more wrestlers than players in the T20 team. There are question marks over the fitness of Sharjeel Khan, Azam Khan, Sohaib Maqsood for international level," Aaqib was quoted as saying by the Geo news channel. Pakistan is currently in the UK preparing for a three-match T20I series. They were annihilated by a second-string England side 3-0 in the recently concluded ODI series. Aqib Javed criticised the team management’s decision to bring back Sohaib Maqsood to the national squad on the basis of his performance in the PSL without knowing his proper batting position and where he would feel comfortable playing. "If you look at the team they have several players of similar nature or for one position. Is this the way to move forward," he asked. Aqib Javed lavished praise on the England limited-overs side for having a set and clear vision about white-ball cricket.