They were without at least 21 players who could easily have lined up in Cardiff but the most unlikely England team of all time yesterday had little trouble in brushing aside Pakistan.
‘Ben’s babes,’ as this hastily assembled England ‘C’ team could be called, were still embarrassingly strong for a Pakistan side making a decent stab at being even worse than Sri Lanka.
Only Bristol rain stopped the Sri Lankans losing all six white-ball games to a much stronger England side. But not even a Covid outbreak that led to a completely new squad being hauled out of Championship cricket could even up this one-sided first one-day international.
Saqib Mahmood (centre) celebrates taking the wicket of Pakistan’s Faheem Ashraf
Lewis Gregory celebrates with team-mates as England’s new-look team take control
‘We’ve made 11 changes from our last game,’ dead-panned Ben Stokes at the toss after riding to England’s rescue ahead of injury schedule and captaining a collection of old and new faces that then cruised to a nine-wicket victory with fully 169 balls to spare.
Pakistan carried on at the start of the second half of this white-ball international summer where Sri Lanka had left off in being truly awful as they capitulated to 121 all out, a paltry effort that would have been even worse had England not dropped four catches.
But, much as Pakistan’s first choice side were woeful, this first of three 50-over matches was a demonstration of the sheer depth of white-ball quality in English cricket.
Delight for Matt Parkinson as he celebrates the wicket of Fakhar Zaman with John Simpson
Even though the original 16-man party was missing in isolation, along with others out through injury like Jos Buttler, Jofra Archer, Reece Topley, Olly Stone and Ben Foakes, this was a strong and impressive England line-up.
Not least the bowler who set the tone in Saqib Mahmood who showed he belongs in higher company than this by taking wickets with the first and third balls of the day and going on to match-winning figures of four for 42.
The Lancastrian has long been on England’s radar and is considered by many, including Sportsmail columnist David Lloyd, as a better red-ball bowler who could be part of England’s Ashes attack this winter.
But, at 24, Mahmood had been restricted mainly by injury to just four one-day internationals and six Twenty20s for England before he displayed the pace and movement here that should see him named in many a first-choice squad in future.
Mahmood has clearly got stronger and has seemingly moved up to another level this season with his skiddy pace. If he can stay fit that huge promise will soon be fulfilled.
Zak Crawley, left, and England’s Dawid Malan run between wickets during their inngins
Mahmood appeals successfully for the wicket of Saud Shakeel, the fourth wicket to fall
England had named five of the nine uncapped ODI players in their 18-man squad and it was the one tipped by Stokes to bring an ‘x-factor’ to this team in Brydon Carse who also caught the eye even though he went wicketless in seven overs.
The South African-born Carse hit 90 miles per hour in his first over, peaking in his spell at 91, and clearly has the raw pace of another Durham man in Mark Wood. Stokes believes Carse could become the new Liam Plunkett for England and it is a role they have struggled to fill since the World Cup triumph of 2019.
Matt Parkinson was another Lancastrian who did himself no harm in taking two wickets and seeing chances spilled off his leg-spin by John Simpson, being rewarded at 32 with an improbable England cap for his sterling service at Middlesex, and Dawid Malan.
Ben Stokes took over as England captain following the Covid outbreak in the original squad
And Stokes only had to bowl one over himself as Pakistan hurried to their own demise with fully 14.4 overs unused in another disappointing low-key game for a crowd restricted to just over 2,000 by Welsh Covid regulations.
That Cardiff crowd then saw the first player born in Wales to represent England in Wales in Sussex’s Phil Salt given his chance at the top of the order. But it was one he wasted trying to hit Shaheen Afridi into Swansea and instead edged to second slip.
It was England’s only alarm as Malan, the No1 ranked T20 batsman in the world but a fringe 50-over player, and another ODI debutant in Zak Crawley had a glorified net in putting on an unbroken 120 with consummate ease.
It seemed surprising when England named Crawley and Dan Lawrence in this squad when they might have been better served gaining what little red-ball practice there was available to them ahead of next month’s five-Test series against India.
But this unbeaten 58 off 50 balls will have done Crawley the world of good while Malan showed he may yet be a long-term candidate for the 50-over side as England build towards the 2023 World Cup in India.
This day-night game was all over well before 6pm and it can only be hoped the full-house due for the second match at Lord’s tomorrow sees better entertainment than this. As it stands England could name their Z team and still come out on top.
Mahmood was on fire and celebrates the wicket of Pakistan captain Babar Azam
Lewis Gregory celebrates after taking the wicket of Mohammad Rizwan in the opening ODI
Matt Parkinson takes a tumble to field off his own bowling during the match at Cardiff