Morning everyone. Or should that be welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends? Three weeks and two days after the last hurrah of the international summer, England are in action on the first of their five winter tours.

That day at the Oval, England were unstoppable, piling up 355 and then bowling Sri Lanka out for 132, which was barely any more than Tom Banton had made off his own bat. Will Banton, Harry Brook, Jordan Cox, Gus Atkinson and Liam Dawson still be in top form now? It’s anyone’s guess. In cricket, the picture can change in the space of a drinks break.

England have some momentum under Harry Brook and Brendon McCullum after beating India as well as Sri Lanka in the summer. But Brook’s record as an ODI captain away from home is modest: won 2, lost 4. And Pakistan started this tri-series with a win on Sunday, as Salman Agha continued his soap opera by making a hundred and the Sri Lankan tail wilted in the face of Pakistan’s fast bowlers. That game, like this one, was in Rawalpindi, which tends to offer pace and bounce.

England have played only three ODIs in Pakistan in the past 21 years – all early last year, all in the Champions Trophy, and all ending in defeat. The last time they met Pakistan in a 50-over game on Pakistani soil was at Rawalpindi in 2005, when England, captained by Marcus Trescothick, won a low-scoring tussle by six runs, thanks to four wickets from Jimmy Anderson and three from Ian Blackwell. England’s other spinner on that occasion was Shaun Udal. It would be another four years before they called up Adil Rashid, who now seems to have been there forever.

This is a day-nighter with play starting at 2pm in Rawalpindi, 10am BST. I’ll be back with the toss and the teams 25 minutes before that. In the meantime, here’s a perceptive series preview from Taha Hashim.