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Summary Pakistan's wary of England's one-day prowess ahead of their series opener in Abu Dhabi.
Pakistan insist England remain a formidable cricket side and will treated as such in their upcoming one-day series in the United Arab Emirates despite recording three resounding triumphs in the Test matches.Misbah Ul-Haqs team completed a 3-nil sweep of England in the Test matches and the teams now face each other in four one-dayers and three Twenty20 internationals.Pakistan are high on confidence after their successes in the longer format but Misbah was adamant England were as dangers as ever.I think they are a good team, even in the one dayers. If they lost 4-0 it doesnt mean they are not a good side, Pakistans captain said.They are a good side and they can perform very well on their day. So we have to be aware of that and I think we have to really play good, hard cricket to beat them.Pakistan will be expected to do well but Misbah said that did not create any extra pressure on his team.Pressure is always on every player, every team whenever you play international cricket, he said.I think it doesnt mean if you are winning its an added pressure on you. I think its better to take every game one by one thats what we doing and I dont think we have an added pressure.For England, the series represents the chance for some redemption after being well beaten in the test matches.Captain Alastair Cook told reporters the one-dayers gave his players the chance to express themselves.Certainly the one-day game dictates that you have to be positive and we are not going to have men around the bat all the time at all. So it certainly changes your mentality as a batter, it does free you up, he explained.And weve got a good record against Pakistan, when weve played against them. So certainly we have had success against these bowlers before in one day cricket, so hopefully we can, not talk of banishing memories of the test matches, but we have to free up a little bit and you have to attack and hopefully that will help us.Cook added: Obviously the test tour didnt go to plan and we didnt play very well.So a new format - the squad has introduced six fresh faces and thats brought fresh enthusiasm to the side and (its now) a squad which over the last couple of days has trained very well, played well against the Lions, and the are very keen to start well tomorrow.Englands top order came under a fire of criticism for their performances in the test matches but Cook was confident they were only one good innings away from being back to their best.You always know when you play for England its amazing how quickly it turns around, both when youre doing well and when youre doing bad.We havent become bad players over a two months period. Yes, our results, we havent play well enough at all but we dont become bad players.If we can get a good performance and get our confidence back, then hopefully we can show people what we’re made of.
