“ENGLAND … England? Er, Harry, what are you going to do and why?”
By Chris Waters
Published 20th Oct 2026, 17:43 BST
Urooj Mumtaz’s interviews with the captains got off to an awkward start at the toss in Rawalpindi, where the former Pakistan player appeared to confuse Harry Brook’s name with that of the side he was skippering.
“We’re going to have a bowl,” said Brook. “We feel like dew is going to be a big factor in the second half, so hopefully we can restrict them to a low total and chase it down.”
With only a few minutes to go before the start of the match, Mumtaz asked: “Any idea of what your side looks like?”
Well, yes. You’d hope so, wouldn’t you.
Brook said there was one change to the team that had finished England’s international summer just over three weeks earlier, with Adil Rashid coming in for Liam Dawson. Actually, there were two changes: Sam Curran was also back in place of the rested Jofra Archer. Not going well, this, was it.
Mumtaz’s next exchange was with Pakistan captain Shaheen Shah Afridi, whose side had opened the tri-series on Sunday with a 37-run win over Sri Lanka, having also been sent in to bat.
“Shaheen, you’ve been put into bat for the first time (in the series). Obviously, you bowled first the other day. In terms of total, what are you looking at?”
“For the last game we also batted first,” Shaheen replied, “so I think it will be no different (in terms of strategy).”
Good grief.
At least the cricket was an improvement on the clumsy preamble.
Pakistan beat England by 87 runs, scoring 302-9 before bowling out England for 215.
Brook’s men seemed to be coasting at 91-0 inside 15 overs but Arafat Minhas, a 21-year-old all-rounder playing his fifth one-day international, took 6-40, having earlier made 59 and shared a sixth-wicket stand of 78 with Hasan Nawaz, who top-scored with 79.
For England, it was a tale of steady decline after the fine start provided by openers Tom Banton and Ben Duckett, who made 57 and 45 respectively before the side collapsed.
On a sun-kissed day, Pakistan batted first - but you knew that already - and made the worst possible start, losing a wicket off the first ball of the match. Fakhar Zaman clipped Gus Atkinson to short mid-wicket, where Joe Root took the catch, inches from the turf.
Zaman stood his ground, as though in petulant refusal to accept the consequences of his poor shot, and the decision was checked by the TV umpire. The process took so long that there was time to boil an egg, eat it, drive to the supermarket and buy another one. A lengthy wait, in other words.
It was 31-2 when Saim Ayub, the other opening batsman, top-edged a pull off Sonny Baker to Curran at fine leg. Babar Azam played some nice shots on his way to 34, but Pakistan’s key man was bowled by spinner Will Jacks.
When Salman Ali Agha fell to a top-edged sweep off a Rashid full toss, caught by Atkinson at deep backward square, Pakistan were 81-4 in the 19th over. But Nawaz, a 24-year-old right-hander playing only his sixth ODI, immediately showed why he had earned such a reputation in T20 cricket, slog-sweeping his first delivery for six off Rashid.
He clubbed two more sixes off the leg-spinner, and another off Atkinson, who dropped him on 28 at deep backward square off Jacks. Atkinson partly atoned for the miss with the wicket of Saad Baig, who pulled to Curran at deep square, but only partly.
Arafat, too, had some fortune, wicketkeeper Jordan Cox putting down a tough chance low to his left off Curran when the batsman had 12. Jamie Overton yorked Nawaz in the 40th over but Minhas and Faheem Ashraf - who played for Yorkshire last season - combined in a seventh-wicket stand of 72, ended when Minhas lofted Baker to mid-off. Faheem was caught at deep mid-wicket off Curran for 39, then Naseem Shah lofted Baker to long-on.
Duckett’s dismissal triggered England’s collapse, the left-hander pulling Haris Rauf to deep fine leg. Banton picked out mid-wicket, then Minhas bowled Brook with one that turned. Root was bowled by Naseem Shah, Curran jabbed Rauf to deep backward square, then Minhas took four quick wickets: Cox and Rashid lbw; Overton caught at long-on, and Jacks at mid-wicket.
The game ended when Minhas ran out Atkinson, after which it was back to Mumtaz for the post-match presentations.