Match Preview – England vs Pakistan | T20 World Cup Final: England and Pakistan are scheduled to go head to head in the T20 World Cup final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday.
However, having defeated India and New Zealand respectively, the two nations must wait to see whether the Australian weather will disrupt a highly-anticipated showdown on the biggest stage.
Match Preview – England vs Pakistan | T20 World Cup Final!!
Match Preview – England vs Pakistan | T20 World Cup Final
From defeat to Ireland to thrashing India without losing a wicket, England has endured a World Cup campaign that has delivered the kinds of highs and lows that they may not have anticipated.
Nevertheless, Jos Buttler and his players will not care how they have arrived at the World Cup final and only remain concerned about how they can continue to have the upper hand over Pakistan.
The teams are certainly no strangers to each other with England recently winning a best-of-seven series on away territory by a 4-3 scoreline before thrashing the same opponents in a World Cup warm-up fixture less than a month ago.
During the group stages of this competition, England found themselves up against it when losing to Ireland in the second match, and a washout against Australia ultimately prevented them from losing a second game in succession, one which could have proven decisive.
Since then, however, England has reeled off victories over New Zealand, Sri Lanka, and India, handling the pressure in must-win scenarios, with Buttler and Alex Hales’s unbeaten 170-run opening stand against the latter in the semi-finals one of the highlights of the tournament, Match Preview – England vs Pakistan | T20 World Cup Final!!
With the ball, Sam Curran (10) and Mark Wood (9) have made key contributions, and England will hope that the second of those pacemen shakes off a fitness issue to return on Sunday.
As for Pakistan, they began the tournament with narrow defeats to India and Zimbabwe, the second of those leaving the nation as rank outsiders to make the top two in Group 2, but beating South Africa in their penultimate game gave them a chance of retrieving the situation.
With the Netherlands then stunning the Proteas, Pakistan was able to progress in second place, providing them with the platform to show their true worth versus New Zealand.
Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam have not enjoyed their best tournaments, but a 100-plus stand and half-centuries apiece guided their team through to a first World Cup final in 13 years.
Shaheen Shah Afridi and Shadab Khan have taken 10 wickets each, while Mohammad Wasim has clocked up tournament figures of 7-86 and could have a big part to play in the final.
Match Preview – England vs Pakistan | T20 World Cup Final!!
Team News
England continues to have injury concerns over Wood and Dawid Malan with each player believed to be struggling to overcome their respective issues.
Wood is dealing with a hip problem and Malan has a groin injury, leaving Phil Salt and Chris Jordan in line to remain in the team after their outings in the semi-final.
Pakistan may see no reason to make any changes to the team which got the better of New Zealand in Sydney earlier this week.
Each of the batsmen that were called upon delivered, while none of the bowlers, despite taking just three wickets between them, conceded at a rate of above 8.25 runs per over.
Although Naseem Shah has taken just three wickets from his 22 overs, he has conceded just six runs per over, and his place in the team is not under threat.
Match Preview – England vs Pakistan | T20 World Cup Final!!
England squad: Buttler, Moeen, Brook, Curran, Hales, Jordan, Livingstone, Malan, Mills, Rashid, Salt, Stokes, Willey, Woakes, Wood
Pakistan squad: Babar, Asif, Haider, Haris, Iftikhar, Khushdil, M.Haris, Hasnain, Nawaz, Rizwan, Wasim, Shah, Shadab, Shaheen, Masood
Road to Final
England Results
October 22: Beat Afghanistan by five wickets
October 26: Lost to Ireland by five runs (D/L method)
October 28: Match abandoned
November 1: Beat New Zealand by 20 runs
November 5: Beat Sri Lanka by four wickets
November 10: Beat India by 10 wickets
Pakistan Results
October 23: Lost to India by four wickets
October 27: Lost to Zimbabwe by one run.
October 30: Beat Netherlands by six wickets
November 3: Beat South Africa by 33 runs (D/L method)
November 6: Beat Bangladesh by five wickets
November 9: Beat New Zealand by seven wickets
Pakistan Predicted Playing XI
Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Haris, Shan Masood, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Shaheen Shah Afridi
England will be coming to Melbourne with a lot of momentum and confidence from their semi-final victory over mighty India. Alex Hales has looked in great touch ever since he made his comeback into the national side. Jos Butler has also been consistent as an opener and led the team from the front. Harry Brook can be a vulnerability in the middle order. His last three scores have been 4 (5), 7 (3), and 18 (21). And these performances have come at 3 and 4.
Match Preview – England vs Pakistan | T20 World Cup Final!!
England Predicted Playing XI
Jos Buttler (c & wk), Alex Hales, Philip Salt, Ben Stokes, Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Chris Woakes, Chris Jordan, Adil Rashid
Pakistan and England have played 28 T20Is between themselves with England winning 18 matches while Pakistan nine. The two sides recently met in a bilateral T20I series with England winning the series 4-3. In the last five matches between both teams, England has a head-to-head of 4-1.
Match Preview – England vs Pakistan | T20 World Cup Final!!
Head to Head in T20I
Total 28
England 18
Pakistan 9
No Result 1
Pitch and Conditions
The pitch is likely to be another MCG 2.0 offering based on how it looked while uncovered 24 hours out – with Victoria’s damp early-season conditions enhancing the pace and bounce on offer to the seamers, in a significant improvement on the moribund drop-in offerings of years gone by. As Pakistan and India proved in their epic group-stage tussle, wickets in the powerplay are to be expected, and a target of 160-odd is likely to be challenging – even Ireland’s 157 proved sufficient to topple a ponderous England in their rain-affected clash at the venue. This strip does appear to have a little less grass, but there is still more coverage than what is normally seen in January in the BBL. The trouble is… that forecast is not encouraging. A reserve day on Monday has been factored in, with a start time of 5 pm (4 am GMT) to allow as much time as possible for a result. But the omens are not entirely promising.
Match Preview – England vs Pakistan | T20 World Cup Final!!
Match Preview – England vs Pakistan | T20 World Cup Final!!
Match Preview – England vs Pakistan | T20 World Cup Final!!
Match Preview – England vs Pakistan | T20 World Cup Final!!
Read more
Pakistan vs New Zealand, T20 World Cup: PAK beat NZ by 7 wickets and made it to the Final
FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022: Dates, Draw, Schedule
