England v Pakistan 3rd T20I Preview: Visitors look for whitewash as the teams conclude the series at Sharjah

England v Pakistan 3rd T20I Preview: Visitors look for whitewash as the teams conclude the series at Sharjah: An entertaining series will conclude at the iconic Sharjah Cricket Stadium, wherein Pakistan will play its first T20I at the stadium against a Test playing nation. As far as the series is concerned, English are done and dusted with both the limited over series in an emphatic fashion, which adds another feather to the cap of the resurgent England side in the shorter formats under the captaincy of Eoin Morgan.

As far as the Pakistan team is concerned, they will be quite disappointed with their performances. Albeit a couple of close shaves in the first two Test matches, they came back strongly in the last Test and the first ODI. But inconsistency from the Pakistan top order batsmen, coupled with some ruthless execution from the visitors, left the home team defeated in both the shorter formats.

But the third ODI, in-spite of it being a dead rubber, has a lot of consequences. While Pakistan would look to end the series on a high note, the visitors will be eager to finish off their successful series with a whitewash. Here are how the teams look like going into the final T20I.

Pakistan:

The team has lost their momentum at crucial junctures of both the T20Is and will be severely disappointed with how they lacked proper killer instinct once the team got an upper hand. The bowlers did their job decently enough, though were expensive in the last 5 overs.

The pacers plummeted in the final overs and Afridi’s logic behind being insistent on playing 3 pacers was questioned. While there is no lack of spinning options in the team, but the English have been cautious with their approach against genuine spinners, and Afridi could bring in a full-time spinner in the place of misfiring Wahab Riaz. Though Tanvir and Ali have been good with the new ball, their death bowling still needs some tweaking.

The batting has been very inconsistent and immature with their approach. None of the batsmen, in either of the T20Is, have stepped up and took the responsibility of building a partnership. Especially in the 2^nd T20I, wherein as many as 5 batsmen went past 20, yet the team managed to fall short of the target by 3 runs. They have to sort out their issues with innings building, which has been time and again exposed by the opposition.

Afridi might bring in some changes going into the third T20I, as the team has nothing to lose. But they would severely try to avoid being whitewashed in a home series, which could be quite an embarrassment for the team who have dominated the format.

England:

The team will be mightily impressed with their performances in the shorter formats, and they have proved that it was no fluke with some thumping victories in the T20Is. As many as 15 players were tried in these two T20Is, but the team’s tempo remained the same. While the batting, despite the top order failure, has stepped up, the bowling has been equally impressive, holding their nerve when Afridi and Sarfaraz looked to take the match away.

James Vince was very impressive in both the T20Is, whereas the middle and lower middle order has also chipped in with some quick runs down the order. Morgan himself, despite a lukewarm ODI series, stepped up well in the 1^st T20I, Billings was equally impressive.

The bowling attack looks well collectively, each of them playing well to their responsibilities. Plunkett was yet again impressive, whereas Woakes has been a surprise performer in UAE this time round. Additionally, Perry has been quite good with the limited opportunities in the T20Is. Morgan has done well in shuffling with the bowling attack, who have responded well to their captain’s demands.

With the series well in the bags, England will look to go for the kill. And they have every chance to achieve a whitewash.

Form:

England: W W W W W

Pakistan: L L W W W

Pitch:

Sharjah has been on the slower side recently, with England beating Pakistan in a relatively low-scoring ODI just 10 days ago. The boundaries are moderate in size, but the batsmen will find it difficult to score big in the final overs if the bowlers do their job well. 160 could be an above par score at this venue.

Stats:

1 – It will be the first time that two Test playing nations will square off at Sharjah Cricket Stadium.

53 – Shahid Afridi’s wicket tally in ODIs he’s played at Sharjah. In the only T20I he played at the stadium, he took one wicket.

7 – Number of wickets Liam Plunkett needs to gain 100 international wickets.

21 – Number of runs James Vince needs to get 100 international runs. He is currently the top scorer of the series with 79 runs.

0 – Pakistan has never been whitewashed in a 3-match T20I series

15 – Number of runs Umar Akmal needs to score more than Mohammad Hafeez to become the highest run-scorer in T20Is for Pakistan.

Probable XI:

Pakistan:

Shahid Afridi (C), Sarfraz Ahmad, Ahmad Shehzad, Mohammad Hafeez, Umar Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Rizwan, Imran Khan, Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Irfan, Anwar Ali.

England:

Eoin Morgan (C), Moeen Ali, James Vince, Alex Hales, Chris Jordan, Billings, Jason Roy, Reece Topley, David Willey, Chris Woakes and Stephen Perry.

3rd T20I: England v Pakistan at Sharjah on Nov 30, 2015
20:00 local | 16:00 GMT
England won the T20I series with the 2nd match and lead the series 2-0 into the 3rd match. Watch the Live Streaming of the T20I series at Cricketgateway.com