Pakistan v England, 1st T20, Dubai

Pakistan Look to Redress Balance in T20

Dubai: Pakistan captain Misbah-ul Haq said his side are desperate to redress the balance in a Twenty20 international against England Thursday after a one-day series whitewash by the tourists.

Pakistan were Tuesday routed 4-0 by England, who showed a big improvement from their 3-0 defeat in the preceding three-Test series.

Misbah wants his side to regain the upper hand, but also wants to use the match as a stepping stone towards the World Twenty20 series later this year.

"This is a very important series for us, more so because we won the Tests, they won the ODIs and now it's almost the decider," said Misbah.

Team news is patchy. Broad admitted that England had injuries and then refused to say what injuries they were, encouraging more Cook Fever. Ravi Bopara's bad back may rule him out although he trained on Wednesday. Pakistan will play Awais Zia but the presence of Hammad Azam, overlooked for the ODIs, ahead of Imran Farhat is less certain especially as Misbah has expressed the wish for those who failed in the one-day series to make amends.

England will defend the title they won in the West Indies in 2010 when Sri Lanka host the fourth edition of the World Twenty20.

Pakistan will ring some changes, with experienced batsman Younis Khan and Azhar Ali returning home while dashing uncapped left-handed opener Awais Zia joins the Twenty20 squad.

England have retained Alastair Cook, originally not named in the Twenty20 squad, after he showed great form in scoring back-to-back hundreds in the first two one-day matches.

England paceman Stuart Broad meanwhile said his side would be using every opportunity possible to help prepare them for the defence of their World Twenty20 title.

Teams from

Pakistan: Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), Abdur Rehman, Aizaz Cheema, Adnan Akmal (wk), Asad Shafiq, Awais Zia, Imran Farhat, Junaid Khan, Mohammad Hafeez, Saeed Ajmal, Umar Gul, Umar Akmal, Wahab Riaz, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Hammad Azam

England: Alastair Cook, Ravi Bopara, James Anderson, Stuart Broad (capt), Steven Finn, Eoin Morgan, Kevin Pietersen, Graeme Swann, Tim Bresnan, Jonathan Bairstow, Danny Briggs, Jos Buttler, Jade Dernbach, Craig Kieswetter (wk), Samit Patel, Alex Hales

Pitch and conditions
Pitches in Dubai have offered enough pace to encourage strokeplay so the odds are on a high-scoring match.

Stats and trivia

• Temperatures in parts of the UAE fell as low as 9C in mountainous areas, 12C on the coast, on Tuesday with storm-force winds, sandstorms and rough seas.
• Awais Zia is uncapped and the only new face in Pakistan's T20 squad.
• Broad has missed three of the six Twenty20 matches since he was named captain due to injury.
• Mushtaq Mohammad, the former Pakistan captain, has called for Pakistan's one-day side to be dismantled.

Match facts
Thursday February 23, 2012
Start time 20:00 local (16:00 GMT)