Pakistan skipper Azhar Ali ready for the upcoming ODI series against England

Pakistan’s ODI XI is ready for the ODI-battle against England

Pakistan’s One-Day skipper Azhar Ali is very pleased with his team’s performance in the two-match ODI series against Ireland, even though the second ODI against Ireland was cancelled without a ball being bowled on Saturday. He is also very much confident for the upcoming One-day International series against England.

The overnight rain did not stop in Malahide, Ireland until an hour after the scheduled start of the second ODI and although there were a few bright spots throughout the day, the rain kept returning and the umpires of the match had to abandon the game at 14:30 GMT.

Pakistan side, with a total of 337 for 6 in the first innings, which culminated in a dominating 255-run victory over Ireland in the first game, are ready to produce some spectacular performance in the upcoming  five-match series against England, which starts in Southampton on Wednesday.

Azhar explained to news 18 after Saturday’s washout, "It was a very good performance in the first ODI, we wanted to experiment with a few more things today. It was another international to win and we would have loved to have played but the rain had the better of the day."

The 31-year-old’s only regret was that he did not get the opportunity to accommodate the other members of his one-day squad in a second game.

He added: "I am still very satisfied with our preparation, and although because of the rain we could not get much practice in here, we have two days in Southampton and we will be ready to go for the first game against England."

The 15-man Pakistan squad saw eight changes from the team which drew the recent four-match Test series against England, but the skipper is happy with the selection and he gave special mentions to spinner Imad Wasim, who took five wickets in the first match and Sharjeel Khan, who made a fine 152 runs innings in the same match.

Azhar added, “We have lot of options, especially with the all-rounders coming in, Mohammad Nawaz and Imad Wasim and if they keep performing, and if Sharjeel performs and continues his form into the England games, we are looking very good”.