The first ODI between England and Pakistan will be played at Chester-le-Street on Friday. This is the last leg of the Pakistani tour of England, and will culminate, what has probably been one of the worst periods in Pakistani cricket for a long time. 
England had won the Test series against Pakistan 3-1 before routing them in the T20Is as well. This leaves the Pakistani side with a one last chance to try and make amends and win something out of the series. Such has been the gloom caused due to the recent match-fixing scandal that hit Pakistan, that the chairman of the PCB was welcomed back in Pakistan with angry chants. 
Shahid Afridi was upfront when he said that the side was pretty bad in both the T20Is, and will need to start refocusing on the task on hand, if they needed to take anything positive out of the tour. However, for that to happen, they need to start batting much better than they have so far. This will mean that the side could be looking at making a few changes to the playing eleven – again to get a right combination.
One also gets the sense that given that this is going to be a day game, it will make sense for the Pakistanis to go in with that extra spinner in Mohammad Hafeez. Hafeez could be batted lower down the order, while Abdul Razzaq could be expected to open the innings in order to get him to play out the new ball.
England will probably get in Johanthon Trott into their line-up given that the batting has looked a tad weak for them as well. What they may also do is to get in James Anderson in place of Ryan Sidebottom, whilst keeping Graeme Swann and Michael Yardy in the fold.
England will go in as favourites in this slightly longer version of the game, and if Pakistan has to have any chance of making it count, it will need them to get their blinders on and focus just on the cricket.