England captain Eoin Morgan won the toss and elected to field as Pakistan recalled Mohammad Amir for the first one-day international at The Oval on Wednesday.
Left-arm quick Amir has been omitted from Pakistan’s preliminary squad for the 50-over World Cup in England starting later this month.
But Amir, who did not feature in Pakistan’s seven-wicket Twenty20 loss to England in Cardiff on Sunday, could force his way into the final 15-man squad if he impresses during this five-match series against England, the world’s number one-ranked ODI side.
England made four changes to the team that beat Ireland by four wickets in a lone ODI in Dublin last week.
Jonny Bairstow replaced Dawid Malan at the top of the order, first-choice ODI wicket-keeper Jos Buttler returned instead of Ben Foakes and pace bowling all-rounders Ben Stokes and Chris Woakes came in for Tom Curran and David Willey.
But Sussex paceman Jofra Archer, who made his debut against Ireland, retained his place.
Rain reduced this day/night match to 47 overs per side, with Morgan opting to field in the hope his bowlers could take advantage of the still overcast conditions.
“Knowing what to chase is an advantage when there’s rain about,” said Morgan at the toss. “It’s a huge boost to have our mainstay players back today.
“There’s a lot of strength in depth in the squad,” he added. This series is about juggling guys so they’re in form and fresh for the nine World Cup group games.”
Line-ups
Pakistan 1 Imam-ul-Haq, 2 Fakhar Zaman, 3 Babar Azam, 4 Haris Sohail, 5 Sarfaraz Ahmed (capt/wk), 6 Asif Ali, 7 Imad Wasim, 8 Faheem Ashraf, 9 Hasan Ali, 10 Shaheen Shah Afridi, 11 Mohammad Amir
England 1 James Vince, 2 Jonny Bairstow, 3 Joe Root, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Jos Buttler (wk), 6 Ben Stokes, 7 Joe Denly, 8 Adil Rashid, 9 Jofra Archer, 10 Chris Woakes, 11 Liam Plunkett.
