Pakistan won the toss and chose to bowl first against England
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details
02:34
‘If Pakistan end up in the final, it would be like winning a contest’
Mohammad Amir pulled out of Pakistan’s Champions Trophy semi-final at Cardiff today with what his captain, Sarfraz Ahmed, reported as “a back spasm” as Pakistan won the toss and inserted England in Cardiff.
Rumman Raees, a 25-year-old left-armer with only two T20Is behind him, took his place and had a chance to make a name for himself.
It was a blow for Amir, who is still awaiting a stand-out performance to pronounce incontrovertibly that, after returning from his match-fixing ban, he can achieve the standards that made him one of the most talked-about young fast bowlers in the world game.
England were content to bat first on a sunny morning, but Pakistan had memories of their win against Sri Lanka still fresh in the mind when they pulled off a frenetic run-chase against Sri Lanka when all seemed lost.
Despite being the only unbeaten side in the tournament, England have slipped behind India as the official favourites – thanks in no small part, perhaps, to Pakistan’s unpredictability.
They made an expected change when Jonny Bairstow replaced Jason Roy at the top of the order, England finally abandoning hope that Roy, so important in setting a brash tempo, would come good after a sorry run of 52 runs in eight knocks. Bairstow has limited experience as an opener, but as far as England were concerned shuffling the order was not an option.
Pakistan opted for an extra spinner, recalling legspinner Shadab Khan, perhaps with an eye to the success of his opposite number, England’s Adil Rashid, on this ground. Fahim Ashraf would count himself a mite unfortunate to miss out after a calm debut against Sri Lanka.
There was finally a warm, sunny day to celebrate in Cardiff, but it remained unsure whether this would mean an avalanche of runs as the game was being played on the same pitch on which Pakistan edged out Sri Lanka in frenzied fashion on Monday.
England’s captain, Eoin Morgan, did not sound unduly concerned about the surface. “The wicket seems to have come up really well from the last game,” he said. “If we’d won the toss we would have looked to bat first. On this ground setting seems to be the way forward.”
England 1 Alex Hales, 2 Jonny Bairstow, 3 Joe Root, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Ben Stokes, 6 Jos Buttler (wk), 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Adil Rashid, 9 Liam Plunkett, 10 Mark Wood, 11 Jake Ball.
Pakistan 1 Azhar Ali, 2 Fakhar Zaman, 3 Babar Azam, 4 Mohammad Hafeez, 5 Shoaib Malik, 6 Sarfraz Ahmed (capt, wk), 7 Imad Wasim, 8 Rumman Raees, 9 Shadab Khan, 10 Hasan Ali, 11 Junaid Khan.
David Hopps is a general editor at ESPNcricinfo @davidkhopps
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo