England’s opening T20 match against Pakistan was abandoned after a ball was not bowled amid heavy rain at Headingley on Wednesday.
Rain continued to fall in Leeds all day, leading the refereeing team to carry out pre-match inspections and take the early decision to abandon the match just an hour before the scheduled kick-off time of 6.30pm.
Jos Buttler’s side are using this four-match series as their final preparation before flying to the Caribbean next week to begin the defence of their World Cup title.
Jofra Archer was due to make his long-awaited return to England more than a year after he last featured at the top level, but that will have to wait until Saturday’s second T20 at Edgbaston at the earliest. It turns out.
The seamer has played just seven times for his country in the past three years due to a string of serious back and elbow injuries, but is back to full fitness after playing club cricket in Barbados as part of his rehabilitation.
The 29-year-old has already been included in England’s provisional 15-man squad for the World Cup, which must be finalised on Saturday, although the team is allowed to make changes afterwards in the case of injuries.
The ECB recalled their Indian Premier League stars early from the franchise tournament to allow England to make fine adjustments and have their first-choice squad available throughout the series to avoid a repeat of their disastrous 50-over World Cup defending last year.
