What is it?
2019 World Cup group stage match
Who is playing?
England v Pakistan
When is it?
Today, 1.30pm (UAE time) start
Where is it being played?
Trent Bridge, Nottingham
How to watch in UAE?
Tune in to OSN Sports Cricket HD or create an online account with Wavo for US$54 (a little less than Dh200). The account will provide customers access to two channels, OSN Cric Xtra 1 and OSN Cric Xtra 2.
What’s their head-to-head like?
Matches: 87
England won: 53
Pakistan won: 31
No result: 3
Form guide (past five games):
England: WWWWW
Pakistan: LLLLL
What they said:
Mark Wood, England fast bowler, on the prospect of sharing the new ball with Jofra Archer: "It is exciting. It's like saying can you add a Jason Roy 180 to a Jos Buttler 150 off 70 or 80 balls. It might happen. If it does that would be awesome. We just have to wait and see. It's all on potential."
Azhar Mahmood, Pakistan bowling coach, on his batsmen's one weakness: "We didn't handle the short-ball really well so we practice a lot [because] we know it will come. When people come from the subcontinent, other teams will use that sort of tactics. In South Africa [over the winter], we had the same sort of issues."
Likely XIs:
England: Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan (c), Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (wk), Moeen Ali, Tom Curran, Mark Wood, Adil Rashid, Jofra Archer.
Pakistan: Imam-ul-Haq, Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam, Shoaib Malik, Mohammed Hafeez , Sarfaraz Ahmed, (c & wk), Asif Ali, Shadab Khan, Mohammed Amir, Mohammed Hasnain, Wahab Riaz.
Summary:
Pakistan's batting remains their strength, having scored heaps of runs against England in a bilateral ODI series recently. The scary thing is they will need to bat out of their skins at Trent Bridge today, and even that may not be enough for them to beat England - such as is quality of the home team's batting line-up.
It will be interesting to see, however, how England deal with Mohammed Amir's bowling. The left-arm swing bowler was brought back into the Pakistan side for the World Cup, and he did well to take three wickets during their defeat to the West Indies. His performance could make a difference. At least Pakistan fans will hope as much.
