Bristol – England captain Eoin Morgan won the toss and elected to field against Pakistan in the third one-day international at Bristol on Tuesday.
Cricket World Cup hosts England, who had said they would rotate their side in what is their final full series ahead of the global showpiece, made two changes from the team that won the second ODI at Southampton by 12 runs on Saturday to go 1-0 up in a five-match contest following an opening washout.
Jos Buttler, fresh from his blistering 110 not out – the second-fastest England ODI hundred – was rested, as was leg-spinner Adil Rashid.
Their places were taken by Joe Denly, a batsman-cum-spin bowler, and paceman Tom Curran with Test wicket-keeper Jonny Bairstow, already in the side, taking over from Buttler behind the stumps.
Pakistan made one change with fast bowler Junaid Khan replacing leg-spinner Yasir Shah in this day/night match.
Morgan, explaining his decision to bowl first said: “It does look like a really good wicket – the boundaries are short here at Bristol and there’s a stiff wind so hopefully we can restrict Pakistan.”
He added: “The benefit of knowing what you’re chasing down is useful. We’re going to change the batting order to give boys a chance to find form – I’m going to drop down to six.”
Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed whose side so nearly chased down a target of 374 at Southampton, said: “We wanted to bowl but it looks like a good batting pitch so hopefully we can put runs on the board.
“Confidence is high after the way we played in the last match.”
Teams:
England
Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow (wicketkeeper), Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali, Eoin Morgan (captain), Joe Denly, Chris Woakes, David Willey, Tom Curran, Liam Plunkett
Pakistan
Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam, Haris Sohail, Sarfraz Ahmed (captain/wicketkeeper), Asif Ali, Imad Wasim, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Junaid Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi
Umpires: Paul Reiffel (AUS), Michael Gough (ENG)
TV umpire: Chris Gaffaney (NZL)
Match referee: Richie Richardson (WIS)
