England: Jos Buttler (t/wk), Phil Salt, Will Jacks, Jonny Bairstow, Harry Brook, Moeen Ali, Liam Livingstone, Chris Jordan, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Reece Topley
Pakistan: Babar Azam (c), Saim Ayub, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Fakhar Zaman, Shadab Khan, Azam Khan, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Amir
Shadab Khan makes a return for the visitors and Naseem Shah misses out/ is rested in modern parlance.
Hello everyone and welcome to The Guardian’s OBO coverage of England’s first T20I against Pakistan from Edgbaston. It’s World Cup tune up time! After the rains in Yorkshire kiboshed the scheduled first game in the week all is set fair for the series to get underway in a little over 30 minutes time in Brum.
All eyes are on Jofra Archer.
The bowler has been marking out his run up and looks nailed on to make his return to the England fold – this will mark his first international on home soil since 2020 and his first professional match since May of last year. England’s prospects of retaining their title at next month’s tournament in the USA and Caribbean are considerably improved if the lightning armed Archer is fit and firing.
The toss is about to take place, I’ll confirm the result and the confirmed teams in a jiffy – if you are out there and want to join in the fun this afternoon then do drop me a line at the details on the left of this page. Are you sitting comfortably? Then let’s begin.
James will be here shortly. In the meantime read Ali Martin’s preview:
Moeen Ali signed off from the 50-over World Cup with a typically honest admission that England should turn to the next generation. Although as the 36-year-old heads into the Twenty20 equivalent next month – a tournament in which he could captain the side at some point – there are no thoughts of international retirement.
Speaking in India last November, Moeen said the players failed to see “the writing was on the wall” and he would “just start again”. As such, having called time on Test cricket after his final-day Ashes heroics last summer, and currently on a one-year central contract, it raised the question whether next month in the Caribbean will be his last dance.