The England that landed in Pakistan will not be the same England that leave Pakistan after today’s game against Sri Lanka. They came after a 2-1 ODI series win against Sri Lanka to a country whose team they had whitewashed in a three-game red-ball series recently. They were without their best batter (Jos Buttler) and best bowler (Jofra Archer), but if they were a team that banked all its hopes on a couple of players, what good were they anyway?
England’s coach Brendon McCullum was upbeat that the side’s pool would only swell as they built towards the World Cup next year. But three games in, and all three ending in losses, might have given England and McCullum some food for thought.
England haunted by the unseen
One is almost too enticed not to blame England for whatever caused the three defeats. They seemed to be sailing smoothly towards chasing a 303-run target set by Pakistan in Rawalpindi. They were at 165 when Joe Root chopped on a Naseem Shah delivery, unknowingly triggering a collapse that cost them the game by 87 runs.
They remedied their batting woes in the last game by going over the board with a 430-run target against Sri Lanka in the next game. Try matching this, is what England’s captain Harry Brook, whose double ton made the massive total possible, would have thought. But Sri Lanka did match that, and in the most excruciating way possible, which left England thinking, what do they fix now?
This clueless mindset is what they faced Pakistan with in Lahore. If 430 couldn’t rescue them, what could? Perhaps a 242-run low target? And for a large part of Pakistan’s chase, it seemed that they had finally cracked the code. England bowlers were breathing fire. Holding the table-toppers and hosts below 242 should have absolved them of their previous shortcomings this series, only that it wasn’t. A Shadab Khan special robbed England of their moment in the sunshine and eliminated them from the series with a game to spare.
They will bid for a consolation win against Sri Lanka, a side that crushed Pakistan’s juggernaut of a run in the last game. The odds are all wildly against England, not least because they would need some spirits lifted before they face Australia in ODIs next month. The odds might be wildly against them, but that’s all they have to make things work in the format that will only grow in importance until the World Cup.
Sri Lanka’s fifth-bowling option
Dilshan Madushanka bagged his career-best figures as he shattered Pakistan to smithereens in the last game. The rest of the Sri Lankan bowlers were stringent in the runs they conceded. But the real question they ought to ask themselves is whether their bowling attack can sustain the fearless bowling on surfaces that are not as bowler-friendly as Lahore’s and against oppositions not committing to Pakistan’s level of farce. They lack a genuine fifth bowling option, which is one of the points on which they can be terribly tested.
In this series alone, their fifth-bowling options have conceded 215 runs in 25 overs for just two wickets. Against England in Rawalpindi, their fifth-bowling options conceded 123 runs in 10 overs.
Weather and pitch report
Is Lahore not the high-scoring ground it used to be? The Australia ODIs earlier this year and the Tri-series have both seen the surfaces being overly bowler-friendly. Lahore’s big boundaries always rubbed batters the wrong way, but the surface itself has now started making batting difficult.
Keeping that in view, a run-fest is very unlikely. The weather should remain the same as in the last game, with dew helping the batting side under the lights more than it did in Rawalpindi.
Where to Watch
- Pakistan: PTV Sports, Tapmad, Tamasha and PCB Live.
- UAE and Middle East: Cricbuzz (TV and digital).
- Sri Lanka: Dialog, PEO TV and Siyatha TV.
- UK and Ireland: Sky Sports and NOW.
- Bangladesh: T Sports and Tapmad.
- Australia: Fox Sports (TV and digital).
- North America: Willow TV (TV and digital).
- Caribbean and Europe: PCB Live.
- Africa: PCB Live.
- India: Veto (digital).
- Other regions: Sports Central / Sports TV, depending on the region.
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