Playing their unique Baz-Ball brand of cricket, the English team have totally dominated Pakistan. Making a test tour of Pakistan after 17 years, England stand on the cusp of a whitewash win if they take home the final test.
For the home team it is an emotional game as Azhar Ali has already said he will retire from international cricket following the game. The 37 year old was one of the longest serving players for Pakistan and seen as a backbone of their batting in the red ball format.
Venue – National Stadium, Karachi
Time – 1030 AM IST
Likely Pitch Conditions –
Pakistan and Australia played here earlier this year and the match went down to the wire. Australia batting first posted 556 before bowling out Pakistan for 148 to take a lead of 408. The visitors batted again scoring 97/2 before setting the home side a target of 506. Babar Azam with 196 and Mohammad Rizwan with 104 nearly pulled of a win for the home team.
Karachi offers a lot of runs and is also haven for spinners and reverse swing bowling during the course of the game. The team which wins the game will look to bat first and put the pressure on the opposition.
Confirmed England XI –
Z. Crawley, B. Duckett, O. Pope, J. Root, H. Brook, B. Stokes, B. Foakes, R. Ahmed, O. Robinson, M. Wood and J. Leach
Likely Pakistan XI –
Abdullah Shafique, Imam Ul Haq, B Azam, A. Ali, S. Shakeel, M. Nawaz, F. Ashraf, Z. Mahmood, M. Ali and A. Ahmed
Head to Head Record –
Matches played – 87
Wins for England – 27
Wins for Pakistan – 21
Drawn games – 39
Head to Head at Karachi –
Matches played – 7
Wins for England – 1
Wins for Pakistan – 1
Drawn games – 1
Karachi stadium record –
Games played – 44
Games won by home team – 23
Games won by visiting teams – 2
Matches drawn – 19
Games after batting 1st – 7
Games won after batting 2nd – 18
Games won after winning the toss – 10
Games won after losing the toss -15
Highest score by a batter at this venue – 313 by Younis Khan vs Sri Lanka in 2009
Best bowling figures at this venue – 8/60 by Imran Khan vs India in 1982
Highest team total at this venue – 765/6 by Pakistan vs SL in 2009
Lowest team total at this venue – 80 by Australia vs Pakistan in 1956
Average 1st innings score -295
Average run rate – 2.8 RPO
Approaching milestones –
·Abdullah Shafique needs 85 runs to reach 1000 runs in test cricket
·Shafique could become the fastest if he scores the needed 85 runs in the 2 innings with Saeed Anwar holding the current record in 20 innings while Shafique has played 17.
·Ben Stokes needs 7 wickets to reach 200 wickets in test cricket
·Stokes will become the 17th Englishman to achieve this feat and the 3rd man after Botham and Flintoff as an all rounder to achieve this feat.
·Jack Leach needs 7 wickets to reach 400 wickets in 1st class cricket
·Rehan Ahmed is set to become England’s 710th test match player
·Rehan Ahmed will also become the youngest at 18 years and 126 days old
·The previous youngest was Brian Close who made his debut aged 18 years and 149 days old.