Pakistan are not even close to the level of India and England, and I’d argue that Australia, NZ and SA should maul them if they play to their capabilities. I know people often like like to talk up Pakistan as this kind of mythical, unpredictable beast in ICC tournaments but the fact is they are just not that good a team.
Babar is obviously a world class player, as is Rizwan when his head is right. Afridi is my favourite left arm bowler in world cricket right now, world class bowler who is fantastic to watch but beyond that you have a mix of players who often flatter to deceive and just aren’t that good. Injuries have already scuppered their chances imo, Hasan Ali is likely to be a starter for them and he’s absolutely shite. England play Pakistan in Kolkata around the tenth of November (can’t remember the exact date), if two of Bairstow, Malan, Root, Stokes and Buttler don’t get a century in that game I’d be genuinely be amazed.
McCullum isn’t England’s short format coach, Matthew Mott is. But yes, the culture is pretty consistent throughout. England unquestionably have the best batting talents in terms of batting deep. I’m not sure that counts for as much in the 50 over format as it does in T20 though.
Shubman Gill is my bet for top run scorer. An unbelievably good player at the top of the order who should be a mainstay for the next decade at least. Though tbh, India are probably the only nation who will could find some kind of way to fuck that up.
SKY, should have been restricted to the T20 format. World class in that discipline, not convinced about him in this but no doubt he’ll prove me wrong.
Matters a lot in ODIs. Even if they lose half their side for 120 odd runs. The extra batting make it more likely that an England can still reach to a winning total than any other team which doesn’t have the same batting depth.
He needs to figure out that he’s got more time in ODIs. It’s a mental discipline thing but I think he can do a specific job if he comes in say at the 38th over and then there’s a huge total in wait if he starts hitting
and New Zealand 
are good teams, it pains me to see an almost empty stadium 
in this game.
vs Netherlands 
today 
made such a mess of beating Afghanistan 
.
. 
