Harry Brook, Phil Salt and Alex Hales, who are all in the World Cup squad, will have the chance to claim their selection for that opening game, while Ollie Stone and Ben Duckett will have the chance to testify the pointers to the future, although they will go home when Jos Buttler regains fitness and Ben Stokes and Liam Livingstone take their places. Hales, returning for the first time since his official ban and unofficial exile in spring 2019, will play in his 61st T20 international. It has been more than eight years since he made that 64-ball 116 in the 2014 World T20 in Bangladesh, but he has made the fifth-most runs in the Hundred and in 26 appearances in the Pakistan Super League since 2018, he has 895 runs at an average 37.29 with a strike rate of 145.05. England will feel the absence of Jonny Bairstow keenly, but if Hales can get those big levers in sync on familiar pitches both here and in Australia (following his Big Bash achievements) they will have someone with even more range strong blows. Pakistan have won all six T20s played at the National Stadium since the resumption of overseas tours, but despite the world’s best batsman in world cricket, Babar Azam, playing his home matches in Karachi, there has been growing criticism after poor returns in the Asia Cup on his strike rate. Indeed, Aaqib Javed, coach of Lahore Qalanders, was bold enough to publicize that his team’s tactic when playing Karachi Kings is to keep him on strike and try not to send him off, “because he plays at his own pace and the required rate keeps increasing.” Babar gave this short shrift yesterday, but it’s the first time he’s butted heads with something so seemingly irreverent, even if it’s coming from his franchise’s staunchest rivals. “The main thing is to keep believing in yourself,” he said. “People will talk no matter how well you’re doing, but it’s best to ignore all of that.”
