England host Pakistan in the third ODI at Trent Bridge on Tuesday afternoon looking to wrap up the five-match series with two games to go.
Pakistan batsmen in desperate need to score more runs
So far in the series, the hosts have dominated with bat and ball leaving the visitors with a must-win scenario in Nottingham in order to keep the series alive.
The visitors have batted first in the first two ODIs but haven't managed to put substantial scores on the board which has led to their downfall as the hosts have chased twice successfully at a canter.
In the second game especially if it wasn't for a brilliant century from Sarfraz Ahmed, the visitors wouldn't have even managed to put any sort of total on the board after being 2-3 at the beginning of their innings.
Pakistan's score of 251 was never going to be enough though as Joe Root made 89 and Eoin Morgan 68 to see the visitors home by four wickets.
Key men
Mark Wood - The fast bowler has made a storming comeback in this series for the hosts after recovering for injury which has kept him out for nearly a year. Wood didn't get the wickets he deserved in the first ODI but in the second match when there was something in the pitch for him, he managed to cause all sorts of problems for the visitors taking three wickets in his ten overs. If England are to win the series in this match Wood will be one of the main reasons as if he manges to take wickets and restrict the visitors then the hosts have a real shout of winning three from three.
Sarfraz Ahmed- For Pakistan the main man in the series to date is Sarfraz. The wicketkeeper batsmen so far has made 55 and 105 in his two innings. He has been the one Pakistan batsmen who has looked in control at the crease so therefore England need to plan better to try and get him out much earlier than they have so far in the series. Sarfraz is a difficult player to get out when he is in this kind of form and is vital to the visitors chances of getting back into the series.
Team News
The hosts are likely to be unchanged once again for the team. The interesting thing that has come out before the match is that Ben Stokes has revealed that he is ready to bowl again after sustaining a calf injury a few weeks ago.
Pakistan, on the other hand, have a couple of things to sort out before the game. Sami Aslam and Sharjeel Khan have not performed well at the top of the order in the first two games and will come under pressure from Mohammad Nawaz or Mohammad Rizwan for their places. Yasir Shah came into the team in the last match but was expensive so he could be replaced by Mohammad Irfan or Umar Gul as an extra pacer. Mohammed Hafeez will once again miss the match due to a knee injury.