Chris Woakes ruled out of Champions Trophy with side strain

Sohail was dismissed for 55 off 46 balls and opened floodgates for the Pakistanis as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals and were wrapped up for 248 and eventually lost the match by 39 runs.

“Also to win he needs to find wickets with the new ball”.

He said: “The ankle’s okay, it’s more of a calf issue – hopefully it’s just some bad cramp”. But the way they played- especially batted – shows the tough character the Asian team has got.

The start of eleventh over didn’t bring some good news for the English side as Soumya Sarkar started to cut loose with two boundaries and a maximum henceforth fetching 16 runs from Ball’s over that was eleventh of the innings.

Amitabh added that both representatives had met in Dubai for talks on the series but he did not share any further details on it.

Besides Pakistan, India have Sri Lanka and South Africa in their Group B.

Pakistan will play its inaugural match in the tournament against arch-rivals India on Sunday at Birmingham.

In 87 years of worldwide cricket since New Zealand played their first Test in 1930, the only tournament they have won was when they beat India in the 2000 Champions Trophy final.

Morgan said Woakes would be a big loss if he can’t play, but also praised his other bowlers for making up for his absence.

Pakistan bowling legend Waqar Younis feels the form of Mohammed Hafeez and Shoaib Malik will be key as an inexperienced Pakistan side chase their first-ever ICC Champions Trophy.

“Let’s not forget that Pakistan has got less to lose than India, who face more expectation being the defending champions”.

They are in such a good space at the moment, in terms of results, that all they bother about is one of favourite words of the modern day players – processes.

England will pick Jason Roy for their Champions Trophy opener against Bangladesh and for the remainder of the tournament too. And in both the games, India managed to bundle out the opposition inside 40 overs.

He and Hales milked the Bangladesh bowlers for all they were worth, barely breaking sweat in the process, a barrage of ones and twos punctuated by the odd drive, cut or pull to the fence.

302 Runs added by England’s second and third wicket partnerships in this match, their most in an ODI.

“When you play against India, emotions count more than experience, of course skill set is important against them, you should be well prepared”, he told. When asked about the importance of the tournament Laxman differed from his former teammate’s comment.