England began their campaign squeaking home by just four runs against Nepal, then were beaten by West Indies before nervy wins against Scotland and Italy, who had earlier upset Nepal by 10 wickets. Similarly, Pakistan suffered a scare against the Netherlands in their opening match before wins against USA and Namibia bookended a 61-run defeat at the hands of India.
They started the Super Eight with a wash-out against New Zealand, the shared points leaving their hopes of qualifying for the knockouts hanging by a thread if they can’t register a win here. Meanwhile, a 51-run margin of victory in England’s first Super Eight match against Sri Lanka owed much to a dire batting performance by the latter and papered over the fact that England were defending a sub-par 146 for 9, in which Phil Salt’s half-century was the only innings of note.
Form guide
England: WWWLW (last five completed T20Is, most recent first)
Pakistan: WLWWW
In the spotlight: Jos Buttler and Salman Mirza
Team news: Balancing act
With four spin options in Adil Rashid, Liam Dawson, Jacks and Jacob Bethell, the all-out pace of Jofra Archer and Jamie Overton’s hit-the-deck-hard modus operandi, an unchanged England attack looks balanced. That’s even before you factor in Sam Curran, whose death bowling and middle-order runs have got them out of trouble already in the tournament. He wasn’t even called upon for a single over against Sri Lanka. Now they need everything to work in tandem for that perfect game.
England: (probable) 1 Phil Salt, 2 Jos Buttler (wk), 3 Jacob Bethell, 4 Tom Banton, 5 Harry Brook (capt), 6 Sam Curran, 7 Will Jacks, 8 Liam Dawson, 9 Jamie Overton, 10 Jofra Archer, 11 Adil Rashid
They didn’t get an outing against New Zealand on a soggy Saturday but the same Pakistan XI is expected to take the field against England, with the experience of Fakhar Zaman favoured to make his first appearance of the tournament ahead of Khawaja Nafay and spin options aplenty. Sticking with that selection leaves Mirza as their only seam specialist.
Pakistan: (probable) 1 Sahibzada Farhan, 2 Saim Ayub, 3 Salman Ali Agha (capt), 4 Babar Azam, 5 Fakhar Zaman, 6 Shadab Khan, 7 Usman Khan (wk), 8 Mohammad Nawaz, 9 Faheem Ashraf, 10 Salman Mirza, 11 Usman Tariq
Pitch and conditions: Time to freshen up
This match will be played on a fresh pitch, which is expected to be better for batting than the one used by England and Sri Lanka on Sunday and it’s looking like the kind of deck England will enjoy more. That said, Brook didn’t feel the previous surface harboured any demons, saying, “it was just slow”. With no sign of the heavy rains which hit Kandy on the eve of that match returning, the forecast predicts sunshine with light winds and a high of 31 degrees Celsius.
Stats and trivia
Quotes
“England struggled against spin against Sri Lanka. And in other attacks you might see one or two top spinners, but we have Nawaz, Saim, Abrar, Usman, Shadab. I’m very confident they’ll give England a tough time tomorrow.”
Sahibzada Farhan backs Pakistan’s healthy spin stocks.
“I think we’re very good in the bilateral series here against Sri Lanka, where we played spin. We’ve had a couple of tough games potentially, but we’ve won. At the end of the day, we know that we can bat a lot better than what we’ve batted, but we’ve won games of cricket and that’s the main thing.”
Liam Dawson has faith in England’s experience of spin at Pallekele.
Valkerie Baynes is a general editor, women’s cricket, at ESPNcricinfo