Toss England chose to bowl vs Pakistan
England won the toss and chose to bowl in the opening match of seven T20Is against Pakistan, on their return to the country for the first time since 2005. Moeen Ali called correctly, captaining the side in the land of his grandfather with Jos Buttler missing due to a calf injury.
England handed a debut to
Luke Wood, the Lancashire left-arm seamer, as part of a much-changed side. As many as six players who were involved in the third T20I against South Africa earlier this summer missed out in Karachi, with the most high-profile returnee
Alex Hales at opener, more than three years after his previous appearance.
Hales, brought back after an injury to Jonny Bairstow and the dropping of Jason Roy, opens alongside Phil Salt, while
Ben Duckett will make only his second England appearance in the format. Wood, who impressed for champions Trent Rockets during the Hundred, comes into an attack that includes the pace of Richard Gleeson and two other left-arm options in Sam Curran and David Willey, as well as spinners Moeen and Adil Rashid.
Pakistan also presented a first T20I cap to experienced top-order batter
Shan Masood, carded to come in at No. 4, although there was no room for Mohammad Haris as Mohammad Rizwan kept the gloves and his spot at opener. Haider Ali returns for his first T20I cap since December, while Usman Qadir was included as the wristspinner and Shahnawaz Dahani is back after injury.
England: 1 Phil Salt (wk), 2 Alex Hales, 3 Dawid Malan, 4 Ben Duckett, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Moeen Ali (capt), 7 Sam Curran, 8 David Willey, 9 Adil Rashid, 10 Luke Wood, 11 Richard Gleeson
Pakistan: 1 Babar Azam (capt), 2 Mohammad Rizwan (wk), 3 Haider Ali, 4 Shan Masood, 5 Iftikhar Ahmed, 6 Khushdil Shah, 7 Mohammad Nawaz, 8 Usman Qadir, 9 Haris Rauf, 10 Naseem Shah, 11 Shahnawaz Dahani
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