England will be looking to continue their excellent limited overs form when they take on Pakistan at Old Trafford on Wednesday evening, following a 4-1 victory in the One Day International series.
Stokes rejoins strong England contingent
The contest will see the return of Ben Stokes to England's Twenty20 squad after being left in the dark following an unforgettable over in the final of the Twenty20 World Cup. With England looking set to take the spoils going into West Indies' final over, Carlos Brathwaite smashed Stokes for four consecutive sixes to win the game for his side.
Stokes adds to a strong England line-up despite the hosts holding an unbeatable 16-10 lead in the series, with just this solo Twenty20 game to play. Joe Root and Alex Hales both bring extra quality to the batting order after missing England's last Twenty20 international where they defeated Sri Lanka by six wickets.
Root topped the hosts' batting leaderboard with 274 runs at an average of 54.80, whilst Hales smashed an English record of 171 runs off 122 balls at Trent Bridge in the ODI series. The pair join the squad at the expense of James Vince and Jonny Bairstow.
Liam Dawson misses out in the bowling department with Mark Wood and Moeen Ali returning after also missing the Sri Lanka match. Wood impressed in the ODI series with seven wickets in four matches, whilst Ali picked up three of his own and allows the batting order to run deeper in line with the new England limited overs' ethic.
The pair join Chris Jordan in the bowling attack who claimed "there's a lot riding on the game. We'll have fans coming out wanting us to win and also everyone has their own personal gains and we'll be playing at a very high intensity. We've been playing some great white-ball cricket and we just want to continue that."
He also explained how England's strong squad can only benefit the team. "Everyone's role is very clear and the competition for places can only benefit the team. Everyone's skill level will have to go up another notch".
Sarfraz looks to England's style of play
Pakistan will be looking towards their captain and wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed to lead by example once more, after finishing the ODI series with the most runs of either team at 300 from the five matches. Hasan Ali will carry a weight on his shoulders during the England innings after claiming eight wickets in the ODI's and looking set to make his Twenty20 debut.
Khalid Latif and Amad Butt also look set to make an experience, with Mohammad Irfan flying home and Umar Akmal missing out again due to disciplinary issues. The tourists will be looking to take confidence from their victory in the final ODI, with captain Sarfraz suggesting "we are very confident. We are trying to develop a new team with youngsters and play Twenty20 like England and Australia".
The likely line-ups read as follows:
England: EJG Morgan (Captain), JJ Roy, AD Hales, JE Root, BA Stokes, JC Buttler (wkt), MM Ali, AU Rashid, DJ Willey, CJ Jordan, LE Plunkett
Pakistan: S Ahmed (Captain, wkt), K Latif, S Khan, B Azam, M Rizwan, S Malik, I Wasim, M Nawaz, M Amir, H Ali, A Butt