FANTASY
Follow UsAfter losing the first ODI by nine wickets to a second-string England team, Pakistan will look to bounce back with a win in the second ODI at Lord’s on Saturday (July 10). Babar Azam’s side need to better their performances in all departments if they need to overcome Ben Stokes-led team and equal the three-match series.
HEAD-TO-HEAD IN ODIs
Overall: 89 | England: 54 | Pakistan: 32 | NR: 3
Last five matches: England – 5
SUGGESTED TEAMS
While you could go for the above team, you also have the option of choosing your own team from Cricket.com’s Fantasy Research Centre. Based on algorithms, we have come up with one team.
GROUND DETAILS AND TEAM COMBINATION
Since 2019, the Lord’s has hosted five ODIs which were even battles between bat and the ball. A total of 86 wickets fell across 10 innings, where 73 wickets were claimed by the pacers while 13 went to spinners. Both the departments were equally effective in containing the runs with an average of economy of 5, but pacers have a far superior strike rate of 27.2 balls per wicket while spinners have claimed a wicket every 70.2 balls. Among spinners, leg-spinners have done slightly better than off-spinners and orthodox bowlers by claiming eight wickets.
With an average score of 278, it is better to go with five batsman, one all-rounder, four pacers and a leg-spinner.
CAPTAIN
Zak Crawley has been excellent in the first ODI with a 50-ball 58 while chasing a meagre total of 141 and will look to make the most of his maiden ODI call-up for England. He looked comfortable dealing with the movement and bounce the pacers were getting.
Our Criclytics player projection predicts Crawley could score 38-58 runs in this match.
X-FACTORS
Babar Azam will be determined to make up for his performance in the first ODI where he was dismissed for a duck. The world no.1 batsman will look to his tally of one fifty and one hundred in the four ODIs he has played so far this year.
Our Criclytics player projection predicts Babar Azam could score 34-52 runs in this match.
Fakhar Zaman has been Pakistan’s best ODI batsman this year with 349 runs from four innings which include two hundreds. He was also the visitors’ top scorer in the first match and will look to continue his form at Lord’s.
Our Criclytics player projection predicts Zaman could score 63-95 runs in this match.
Saqib Mahmood made a dream ODI return by dismissing Imam-ul-Haq with the first ball of the first ODI and then got the prized wicket of Babar Azam two balls later as he finished the match with 4-42. The Lancashire man will look to pile more misery on the visiting batsmen on a Lord’s surface which offers plenty of movement for pacers.
Our Criclytics player projection predicts Mahmood could pick up 0-1 wickets in this match.
