Top 5 performers from England vs Pakistan ODI series
“At least we didn't suffer a whitewash” must have been the thoughts echoing in the minds of Pakistan captain Azhar Ali after the 4-1 ODI series loss to England. They managed to avoid a whitewash thanks their best batsman of the series scoring another fifty and establishing himself as an integral part of the middle order.
The series highlighted the gulf between the two sides as far as the shorter formats of the game is concerned. While Pakistan and England were neck and neck in the Test series that couldn’t be farther from the truth in the ODI series. So where the top performers for both England and Pakistan in this series? Do any Pakistan players make the list?
Here are the top five performer from the England-Pakistan ODI series:
Alex Hales
Is one innings good enough to warrant a good series? No matter how good or bad, is one knock enough to justify your selection in the side? In most cases, the answer would be no but in the case of Alex Hales, the answer is a firm yes, not only because of what his one innings signified but also his form going into the series.
After all, no body could keep up a run that Hales enjoyed at the start of the year. Four fifties and two centuries in your first seven ODI matches of the year are simply mind-boggling numbers and it isn’t a surprise that Hales couldn’t maintain that throughout this series.
Still he finished with more runs than all but two players (Joe Root and Sarfraz Ahmed) and that was all thanks to one glorious innings at Trent Bridge. His 171 broke the English record for the highest ODI score by an English batsman and was also his career-best List-A, ODI career and helped England to the highest-ever ODI total and that is why he makes it into this list despite scores of 7, 14, 8 and 23 in the remaining four matches of the series.