Charles Dagnall
BBC Test Match Special

Pakistan are putting a bit of pressure on. I wonder if it's time for orthodox cricket shots and the rewards will come.

Ebony Rainford-Brent
Ex-England batter on BBC Test Match Special

I think if Tanvir lets anything drift outside off England will free their arms and even go over the top.

Eng 8-0published at 2 overs

2 overs

T20 specialist Sohail Tanvir - a big unit, bowling off the wrong foot with a whippy action - chucks in a wide to help England but then finds the perfect line, short of a length over the top of off. Still no boundaries for the home side. That is partly thanks to Imad Wasim's head, which wears one courtesy of a nasty bounce off the footmarks of one of the cut strips.

Ebony Rainford-Brent
Ex-England batter on BBC Test Match Special

Jason Roy likes to hit on the up. It's carrying nicely. This is looking like a very good wicket.

Spin to start. Imad Wasim with his gentle round-arm off-cutters. It's a good start. Just the two singles off it to get both England openers off the mark.

It's not just vuvuzelas in the crowd. There is also a healthy collection of those inflatable clapper things. The perfect storm.

Graeme Swann
Ex-England spinner on BBC Test Match Special

Every player wants every opportunity to stamp their mark. No one can rest on their laurels. It makes for exciting cricket. It brings out the best in people. Years ago it would have brought out a conservative brand of cricket.

Stephan Shemilt
BBC Sport at Old Trafford

I have never been at a louder cricket match in the UK. The teams have just been announced. The biggest cheers? For Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid.

Tom Marlow: Very disappointed to see Tymal Mills isn't playing tonight!!

Dave Riley: Was there ever any intention of using Billings or a plot to keep him out of the Kent team chasing promotion ?

Jerusalem is currently locked in a battle with the vuvuzelas for audible prominence at Old Trafford. I'm giving it to the vuvuzelas on points. The Pakistan team are out there, the England bench is manned with padded-up batsmen and Alex Hales and Jason Roy are striding to the middle. Here we go...

Stephan Shemilt
BBC Sport at Old Trafford

Pretty deafening inside Old Trafford, it seems pretty standard for every Pakistan fan to be in possession of a horn - think the 2010 football World Cup in South Africa. Away to the left of the press box is a huge temporary stand, in looks to be exclusively full of green flags and shirts.

Graeme Swann
Ex-England spinner on BBC Test Match Special

Don't know who's decided to give the crowd vuvuzelas! It's a great atmosphere. Pakistan are buoyed by that win. England just had that one blip in the last ODI.

Tonight will make little difference in the Super Series... you know, the Super Series... the points thingy for the whole series? OK, well, England lead 16-10 after drawing the Test series but winning the ODIs in emphatic fashion. It has rendered this 20-over smash the deadest rubbers. It's a stiff, bereft of life, it rests in peace.

In short then, let's just have some fun.

Image source, Getty Images

Graeme Swann
Ex-England spinner on BBC Test Match Special

We saw a great pitch at Trent Bridge give us 400-odd, it's a matter of time someone gets 300 in a T20. And this England team can do it, I think they're better than the Australian side.

Flags at Old Trafford have been at half-mast today following the death of Ken Higgs, the former England, Lancashire and Leicestershire right-arm seamer, at the age of 79.

Higgs played 15 Tests between 1965 and 1968, but was playing county cricket until five months short of his 50th birthday. He took 1,536 first-class wickets at an average of 23.61.

Image source, get

Graeme Swann
Ex-England spinner on BBC Test Match Special

That World Twenty20 final was so long ago in the cricketer's mind Ben Stokes won't even remember it as his last T20. It's great to see him back, and he will have learned from the experience.

Having spent many an evening watch it chuck it down outside the BBC offices in Salford Quays, I am well aware of how the weather can turn as quickly as the time it takes to say, "ruddy hell, look outside!"

Thankfully, though, it looks like we may have a pleasant evening in store over Old Trafford. Here is what BBC weather have to say...

"It'll be a cloudy start for many, with some patchy mist and fog in places. These will gradually lift and clear to allow bright or sunny spells to develop during the afternoon. Feeling warm and humid in the sunshine. After a fine evening, it will be a mostly dry night with clear spells. However, thickening cloud will bring some outbreaks of rain into western parts by dawn."

Image source, BBC Weather

This is the same England team that played in the World T20 final. It is the first time Ben Stokes has played an ODI since THAT over. Get stuck in Stokesy lad. Like ripping off a plaster.

England XI: Hales, Roy, Root, Buttler, Morgan, Stokes, Moeen, Willey, Rashid, Plunkett, Jordan.

Pakistan XI: Khalid, Sharjeel, Shoaib, Sarfraz, Rizwan, Babar, Imad, Amir, Wahab, Sohail, Hasan.