Pakistan vs England: Twitterati hail Harry Brook, Luke Wood as visitors go 1-0 in T20I series with six-wicket win

England marked their return to Pakistan after 17 long years with a commanding six-wicket victory over Pakistan in the first of seven T20Is on Tuesday.

Opener Alex Hales made a successful comeback into the English side after a gap of over three years with a knock of 53 off 40 balls after valuable spells from Luke Wood (3/24) and Adil Rashid (2/27) helped restrict the Pakistanis to 158/7.

Hales, who had fallen out of favour with previous white-ball leader Eoin Morgan, forged a valuable fourth-wicket stand with Harry Brook, worth 55, to put his side in the driver’s seat after things looked tricky for the chasing side at one stage.

Brook provided the finishing touches after Hales was dismissed off Haris Rauf’s bowling, remaining unbeaten on 42 as the visiting team won with four balls to spare.

With regular white-ball captain Jos Buttler out of action currently due to a calf injury, all-rounder Moeen Ali took over as the captain. Buttler isn’t expected to play until the last two matches that take place in Lahore, and might end up skipping the whole series altogether as he has been advised to go easy on his recovery before the T20 World Cup.

PAK vs ENG, 1st T20I stat attack: Hales ends long wait, Rizwan joins elite list and more

Things haven’t been going Pakistan’s way in the recent weeks. They surrender their hopes of winning a third Asia Cup title with two defeats to Sri Lanka inside three days earlier this month. And both fans and experts will be growing more impatient with their latest display.

Here’s how Cricket Twitter reacted to the first T20I in Karachi:

HARRY, HARRY BROOK. HARRY, HARRY BROOK