Pakistan v England 
/ Michael Vaughan / 09 February 2012 / Leave a Comment 
Big guns. Younis Khan, Umar Gul and Shahid Afridi share a joke with coach Mohsin Khan (second from left).
"We have seen Pakistan struggle to chase good scores plenty of times in the past so the toss may end up being really important. Still, we have to side with Pakistan because of the momentum they bring into the one-dayers and their better knowledge of the conditions."
The momentum Pakistan are carrying from the Test series and better knowledge of the conditions should help them win the ODI series. Michael Vaughan discusses England's strongest team and the best bets.
The Test series was a rude awakening for England but they get a chance to try and redeem themselves with this four-match ODI series. If we're looking for positives then we can say that some of the England batsmen who now take to the limited-overs format should know how to play the likes of Saeed Ajmal and Abdur Rehman by now. One of the guys who really struggled against them, Ian Bell, has been dropped and there are some new guys like Jos Butler, Steven Davies and Ravi Bopara coming in who may not have played against those guys before but then again, won't have nightmares about what happened in the Test matches to haunt them.
Kevin Pietersen is opening the batting just like he did at the World Cup and that's a good move. Firstly because he's probably still England's most dangerous player in this format and will enjoy batting when the ball (or balls as it now given that two are used throughout the match) is hard. And secondly because I think it's time to abandon the experiment of opening with Craig Kieswetter, who will drop down the order.
Jonathan Trott may contribute in terms of weight of runs but I simply can't have him and Alastair Cook batting together in the top three. You can't axe the skipper so if I was me, I'd be tempted to leave Trott out and play Samit Patel at three. The Notts all-rounder also likes to bat when the ball is hard and something England need to start doing is playing the batsmen in the positions they bat for when playing for their counties. Patel bats at three for his county so he should bat there for England as well.
If Jos Butler is going to get a game he should bat at four, which is where he comes in for Somerset. But I'd actually be tempted to play Bopara and find out for once and for all if he can cut it at this level. He'd also provide another useful option as a fourth seamer. Then it would be Eoin Morgan at five, Jonny Bairstow at six and the aforementioned Kieswetter in the traditional keeper's position of seven.
Of these Morgan would be my selection to end the series as top-runscorer. I know he only comes in at five but we saw in the Test series how one wickets leads to another and he may well be at the crease a lot earlier than England would have liked! He's available at [6.0].
The rest pretty much pick themselves with Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, James Anderson and one of Tim Bresnan or Steve Finn.
Pakistan are arguably a better Test side at the moment than they are ODI team but this will be far from easy for England. Shahid Afridi is and always has been a match-winner and Umar Akmal has been accused of being a little reckless at times but he's another who can turn a game very quickly. They will both come into the side and could be big players for Pakistan in this series.
The big problem England have is that I wouldn't fancy them to chase anything above 250 and that's likely to be on the cards if Pakistan bat first. We saw in the Test series that England's batters couldn't keep their wickets intact against the spinners, let alone score off them so I can't see how that's going to change now, especially with the pressure of a tricky run-chase on. I can picture a scenario where England are chasing 230-250 and fall well short just like they did in the Tests.
England's best bet is to bat first if they win the toss, be aggressive against the spinners and try to set a decent total. We have seen Pakistan struggle to chase good scores plenty of times in the past so the toss may end up being really important. Still, we have to side with Pakistan because of the momentum they bring into the one-dayers and their better knowledge of the conditions. If England don't win one of the first two matches it could easily end up being another whitewash, just as it was in India before Christmas but I think they will, so 3-1 would be my idea of the series score.
1pt Back Eoin Morgan to be England top series runscorer @ [6.0]
3 pts Back Pakistan to win the series @ [2.22]
Back Pakistan to win the series 3-1 @ [3.4]
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