England vs Pakistan 2021, ODI Series Stats Preview: Player records and approaching milestones

Pakistan and England are all set to clash in a three-match ODI series starting 8th July with the first game to be played in Cardiff. England have been forced to announce a new squad after three members of the original squad were found COVID-19 positive. Ben Stokes will be leading the revised England squad in this series against Pakistan. Both sides will later play a three-match T20I series.

Here are all the important stats and numbers before the start of the ODI series between England and Pakistan:

Head to Head: Both teams have played 88 ODIs against each other so far. Of these, 53 have been won by England while Pakistan have emerged victorious in 32 ODIs.

1 – In the last 11 ODI bilateral series played at home, England have won 10 and have been defeated in only one series. That loss was against Australia in September 2020.

1974 – Pakistan have been winless in the last 10 ODI bilateral series they played at the latter’s home. The only time Pakistan won an ODI series in England was in 1974 when Intikhab Alam led team defeated the hosts by 2-0.

34 – Imam-ul-Haq has scored 1966 runs in 43 innings so far in his ODI career. He needs 34 runs in the next innings to become the second-fastest player to reach the milestone after Hashim Amla (40 innings). Among Pakistan players, he will reach the top spot surpassing Zaheer Abbas and Babar Azam, both of whom completed 2000 ODI runs in 45 innings.

98 – Ben Stokes’ total experience of 98 matches in ODIs is more than double of the other 17 members of the revised ODI squad (48 ODIs). Even in the final playing XI, Stokes’ experience will be quite dominant from other players.

6 – England have included 9 uncapped players in their revised squad. It will be interesting to see how many of these get a chance to make their debut in the first match. The most debutants used by England since their first match were 6 when they played against West Indies in 1973.

4000 – Pakistan captain Babar Azam has aggregated 3808 runs in 78 innings in his ODI career. He needs 192 more runs to complete 4000 ODI runs. If Babar reaches the milestone in the next 2 innings, he will surpass Hashim Amla (81 innings) to grab the number 1 position. Babar will reach the joint-top spot if he scores 192 or more runs in the ODI series.

2016 – Sohaib Maqsood has been called in the Pakistan ODI squad for this series. The last time he represented Pakistan in international cricket was back in 2016.

2 –  Ben Stokes will be playing his 100th ODI for England in the second match of the series.

183 – Ben Stokes requires 183 more runs to complete 3000 ODI runs. He will become the third England all-rounder after Paul Collingwood and Andrew Flintoff to pick 50+ wickets as well as score 3000+ runs in the ODI format.

2015 – This will be the first match after 2015 that England will play an ODI without Eoin Morgan and Jos Buttler in the playing XI. Since Buttler’s debut in 2012, England have played only 1 ODI match (against Ireland in 2015) when Buttler and Morgan did not feature in the XI.