Pakistan drew the Test series against England, but lost the five-match ODI contest 4-1. Hence the Men in Green will be hell-bent to perform well in the only T20 match against England at Old Trafford on Wednesday. Looking at the way England demolished Pakistan in the ODI series, the latter need to come up with something special to end their tour on a high.
Azhar Ali, who captained Pakistan in the ODI series, was not able to bring the best out of his talented players. It remains to be seen if the new T20 captain, Sarfraz Ahmed, can inspire his team to a T20 win.
After losing the first four matches, Pakistan finally managed to defeat England in the fifth ODI, and Sarfraz wants to use this win as an inspiration ahead of the T20 match. Sarfraz played a huge hand in that win, scoring 90 runs.
"It's a positive thing for us to win from 4-0 down - a great achievement chasing 300 outside of Asia. We are very confident. We are trying to develop a new team with youngsters and play Twenty20 like England and Australia," Dawn quoted Sarfraz as saying.
Pakistan are fully aware that England are even more dangerous in the shortest format. They were one of the best sides in the World T20, with a good mix of explosive batsmen and bowlers. Besides their brilliant run in the World T20, which saw them finish runners-up in the competition, England will derive confidence from the way they thrashed Pakistan 3-0 when the two teams last met in the UAE.
All-rounder Chris Jordan is one of the key bowlers for England in the T20 side, and considers this T20 match to be an important one, especially with the competition for places in the squad.
"There's a lot riding on the game - we'll have fans coming out wanting us to win and also everyone has their own personal gains - and we'll be playing at a very high intensity. We've been playing some great white-ball cricket and we just want to continue that," Sky Sports quoted Jordan as saying.
"Everyone's role is very clear and the competition for places can only benefit the team. Everyone's skill level will have to go up another notch."
England, with players like Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Alex Hales, Jordan, Eoin Morgan , are a team studded with quality T20 stars. If these players get going, Pakistan will have it tough against the home team.
Talking about talented players, Pakistan have never been short of quality players. The present squad includes Sharjeel Khan, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Irfan, who can all win games on their own.
Where to watch live
England vs Pakistan 5th ODI is scheduled for a 6:30 p.m BST (11 p.m IST, 10:30 p.m Pakistan time) start.
India - TV: Star Sports 2/HD. Live Streaming: Starsports.com
Pakistan – TV: PTV Sports. Live streaming: PTV Sports live
UK: TV: Sky Sports 2. Live Streaming: Sky Go
Australia: TV: Fox Sports 2. Live Streaming: Foxtel Play.
