James Taylor enjoys giant challenge of cutting Irfan down to size

'I had a neck ache for half-an-hour afterwards,' said Taylor after facing 7ft 1in Mohammad Irfan

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James Taylor has had to put up with a stiff neck after facing just 14 balls from Mohammad Irfan so far, but the England batsman will be perfectly happy if he suffers more of the same at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium.

The height difference between England’s diminutive middle-order batsman and Pakistan’s giant left-armer is great, but from 22 yards 5ft 5in versus 7ft 1in has turned into a pretty even match in both one-day internationals to date.

With the series level at 1-1, Taylor is able to point to an innings of 60 and an unbeaten nine and can perhaps even claim to be occupying the upper ground in his battle with Irfan.

“I had a neck ache for half-an-hour afterwards,” Taylor said, as he recalled his last battle with Irfan, whose height actually suits the batsman, a strong back-foot player who feeds off bounce.

“I quite enjoy facing the big guys, because it means the ball should bounce and that plays to my strengths,” Taylor added. “But he’s obviously exceptionally tall and I’m pretty short, so the height difference is quite funny. I find it amusing looking up at him and I’m sure everybody else around the ground did as well.

“He’s also shown what a great bowler he is. In these conditions, for such a big guy, it must be tough. But he’s bowled exceptionally well so far and he’s a real challenge.”

There is, of course, a bigger picture for England as they seek to build on Friday’s 95-run victory in Abu Dhabi. “Most importantly, we’ve come here to win,” said Taylor, who is not in England’s Twenty20 squad and will therefore fly home at the end of this week.

Before then, on Thursday, he can expect to be named in the Test squad to take on South Africa over Christmas and the new year. That, though, will not be uppermost in his mind while there is a series to win.

“Rather than look too far ahead and get distracted by what’s on the horizon,” he added. “First and foremost, we’ve got a job to do here. We know they’re going to come back hard at us.

“It was just a delight to see the way we performed and the style with which we went about it. We all know the talent we’ve got in the squad, but to show it against Pakistan – especially after that first game – to come back and play like we did in the second ODI was really pleasing to see.”

As for his own standing, after 25 ODIs and three Tests spread over four years, Taylor believes he is finding his feet. “This is the most I’ve enjoyed my cricket for a long time now,” he said. “It’s great to be playing with these guys.”

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Possible teams:

Pakistan Azhar Ali (capt), Babar Azam, Mohammad Hafeez, Iftikar Ahmed, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Rizwan, Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), Anwar Ali, Wahab Riaz, Yasir Shah, Mohammad Irfan.

England JJ Roy, AD Hales, JE Root, EJG Morgan (capt), JWA Taylor, JC Buttler (wk), MM Ali, CR Woakes, AU Rashid, DJ Willey, RJW Topley.

Umpires JD Cloete (SA), CB Gaffaney (NZ).

Match official RS Madugalle (S Lanka).

Television Sky Sports 2, 10.30-19.00.

Odds: Pakistan Evens, England 4-5.