Pakistan vs England, 1st T20I Stats Review: Alex Hales’s return, Luke Wood’s feat on debut, and other stats

Alex Hales made an impressive comeback to the English side as he smashed a half-century while debutant pace bowler Luke Wook took 3/24 in his four-over spell as England defeated Pakistan convincingly by six wickets in the first of the seven-match series in Karachi. Mohammad Rizwan continued his stellar T20 form as he scored 68 off 46 to help his side in reaching a total of 158/7 in 20 overs. Harry Brook remained unbeaten on 42 off 25 to seal the deal in 19.2 overs and take a 1-0 lead for the visitors in the series.

Speaking of how the opening fixture panned out, skipper Moeen Ali won the toss and opted to field first. Notably, England toured Pakistan for the first time after 17 years as they last played internationals on these shores way back in the year 2005. Struggling for the form of late, captain Babar Azam made 31 off 24 while Haider Ali scored 13. The second highest run-getter in all T20s in 2022, Shan Masood got a chance in the side but couldn’t quite make an impression as he fell for just seven. Iftikhar Ahmed, with the help of three maximums, struck a quickfire 17-ball 28. Adil Rashid snared two scalps for 27 runs as the tourists restricted the Men in Green to below 160.

Chasing 159, wicketkeeper batter Philip Salt opened the innings with Hales but didn’t make much of an impact as he got dismissed for just ten. Hales, playing for the first time since 2019, continued his incredible form in this format as he amassed 53 off 40 which included seven fours. England never really looked in trouble as they clinched the first T20I in a clinical way. For his match-winning spell of 3/24 on debut, seam bowler Luke Wood grabbed the Player of the Match award.

Meanwhile, here are some of the important stats and numbers from the 1^st T20I between Pakistan and England:

3 – Pacer Luke Wood became the third England player to bag the Player of the Match award on debut in T20Is. Kevin Pietersen against Australia in 2005 and Dawid Malan against South Africa in 2017 are the other two instances.

2011 – Mohammad Rizwan reached the milestone of 2000 runs in T20Is. He became the fourth Pakistani after Babar Azam (2785), Mohammad Hafeez (2514), and Shoaib Malik (2423) to achieve the feat.

2019 – Ales Hales played his first international match for England since the year 2019. His last appearance was also in a T20I match against West Indies in Basseterre in March 2019.

17 – England played their first international match in Pakistan after 17 years. They last toured these shores for a three-match Test and five-match ODI series in the year 2005.

52 – Rizwan is now the joint-fastest with his skipper Babar to fastest to 2000 runs in T20 internationals. Both the Pakistani players took 52 innings in completing the landmark. India’s Virat Kohli is behind them on the second spot for reaching it in 56 innings.

1324 – Hales has slammed the most runs (1324) in all T20s in 2022. Pakistan’s Shan Masood is in the second spot for hitting 1255 runs.

17 – Rizwan has now smashed the most 50-plus scores (17) by a wicketkeeper in the shortest international format. He surpassed England’s Jos Buttler tally of 16 such scores.