Fakhar finds the middle and new faces... ENGLAND V PAKISTAN TALKING POINTS

NICK HOWSON AT SOPHIA GARDENS looks at the stand-out topics from the opening one-day international at Cardiff

Scorecard

Inexperienced England

Thanks to three international debutants and two others who had not previously played an ODI, this was the most inexperienced England line-up for 36 years.

There were just 135 caps in this XI, with captain Ben Stokes possessing 99 of them.

Not since the 43-run defeat to Pakistan in 1985 at Sharjah have England fielded a side with fewer.

On that occasion, Graeme Fowler was the most experienced player with 23 previous outings, while Phil Edmonds had 21.

Just two players were making their debuts: Rob Bailey and Pat Pocock whose one and only outing in the format came in that particular game.

Of those to make their first step into the breach, a word about John Simpson who of those called up as cover this week will have been most suspicious about the nature of the call.

That is not to criticise or even pull fun at Simpson's career. But at 32 and nearly 300 games into his professional career, he might have felt that his chance had gone.

You'll have needed a heart of stone not to be delighted when the Middlesex gloveman collected his first dismissal as Mohammad Rizwan edged Lewis Gregory behind.

And that after he had influenced the calling of a review from the first ball of the day, which got rid of Imam-ul-Haq. That is something to tell the grandkids about.

^{Pakistan has little time to prepare for England's new-look squad}

New ball success

Eoin Morgan has spoken openly about England's need to improve in taking wickets in the powerplay overs, albeit in the T20 format.

But there is no doubt those skills can be honed in the 50-over arena.

Perhaps thanks to some lacklustre batting, England made another impressive start to the innings.

Saqib Mahmood and Gregory's early strikes had Pakistan four down for 26 in seven overs.

Following on from some similarly poor efforts from Sri Lanka this was the third successive game in which England had taken four scalps in the opening 10 overs.

Remarkably, it is as many times as England had done it during the 178 ODIs previous to that, dating back to February 2012.

And while we can all agree it was not a Sri Lanka vintage that played at The Kia Oval and Bristol, this is a rather better Pakistan side.

Imam is an established international opener, Babar Azam is the ICC No.1, Mohammad Rizwan is among the sport's most improved players in the last two years and Saud Shakeel would not have been making his Pakistan bow here if it had not been for injury.

There was one poor shot in there from Babar - though perhaps he's allowed the odd failure - but also some well-pitched bowling from the new-ball pair.

England's new breed do county cricket proud

Fakhar tees off

The Pakistan opener was seeing it like one of those inflatable unicorns during his innings.

It was a knock of two halves from Fakhar, first watching from the other end as partners came and went.

After eight overs, the 31-year-old was nine off 21 and desperately trying to see off the England onslaught.

Soon, he became the protagonist. Anything overpitched was punched through the V between deep extra cover and long-on. Gregory and then Brydon Carse were dispatched.

In between, Fakhar highlighted his scoring ability on both sides of the wicket, plundering the ball through mid-off and then pulling through mid-wicket.

The shot of the innings perhaps came off Carse, as he shifted his stance and breezed the ball through wide long-on.

Having survived being part of the calamitous run-out of Sohaib Maqsood he perhaps got his just deserts when he cut a bit of filth from Matt Parkinson straight to Zak Crawley.

With a third of Pakistan's runs to his name, it is easy to identify him as their premier batter. And on an afternoon where an intriguing contest was replaced by a one-sided one, it was probably the outstanding individual performance.

^{Malan and Crawley put on 120 for the second wicket}

Crawley has a hit

Joe Root wants his Test players to use the white-ball summer to hit their way into form ahead of the India series.

"Regardless of the format, getting that confidence behind you or hitting the ball again in good strong areas is a really good way to come back off a series where you've struggled," he said after the series defeat to New Zealand.

With nine single-figure scores in his last 12 Test innings, Zak Crawley was possibly the most vulnerable.

But it can't be denied that he has hit himself into form. Having averaged 40.14 from seven Blast outings for Kent Spitfires, he carried that run into his first ODI as England cruised to victory.

Granted, he will play in more pressure-filled scenarios than this, with a sub-standard target in their midst, but there was some cracking strokes to boot.

Crawley carved Hasan Ali through cover, flicked Shaheen Shah Afridi through square leg, whipped Haris Rauf past midwicket and then cut him through point.

Alongside Dawid Malan, you could argue this was some kind of battle for the No.3 berth for the Ashes.

In this mood, Crawley is unignorable and he at least looks in a good place as India loom.

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