England 52-1 after 10 overs, Bairstow 29*, Root 10*.
Thanks to openers' first hundred stand of the tournament, the inconsistent Pakistan middler order was not tested much.
Azhar Ali scored 76 off 100 balls before being dismissed by Jake Ball.
Mohammad Amir, who is suffering from back spasm, has been left out and Rumman Raees has replaced him.
Pakistan: Sarfraz Khan (c and wk), Ahmed Shehzad, Azhar Ali, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Sohail, Hasan Ali, Imad Wasim, Junaid Khan, Mohammed Amir, Mohammed Hafeez, Shadab Khan and Shoaib Malik. The swinging ball at the 4th stump line is England's weakness.
Most of the Pakistan batsmen have struggled during the group matches.
Pakistan team as well as Sarfraz Ahmed have fond memories of the Sophia Garden ground where they beat England after chasing down a tough 303-run target, with the skipper hitting a brilliant 90 in September a year ago.
Pakistan have a serious problem if England bat first.
Bairstow has bounced back from a nervy start by hitting two boundaries off Junaid through the leg side to move onto 14, already higher than Jason Roy's top score in the competition of 13.
Former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi says he expects the Men in Green to fight hard in the semi-final of 2017 Champions Trophy against England on Wednesday at Cardiff.
Sabres hire Housley as head coach
Phil Housley started his National Hockey League playing career in Buffalo and now his first head coaching job will be there, too. He went on to play eight seasons in Buffalo, ranking fifth in team history in points (558) and games played (608).
England have come a long way in a short space of time since a humiliating first-round exit at the 2015 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
Bairstow replaced Roy after the Surrey opener had managed just 51 runs in eight one-day global innings so far this season.
It was just too easy for Pakistan, which won its third straight game at the tournament.
"Getting to this stage of the tournament, we need results, and if that means somebody misses out, it's unfortunate, but for the team's sake, we need to get results".
Before winning against Sri Lanka, Pakistan had lost a heavy match against arch-rival India but in their second match they had a narrow win over South Africa.
Notwithstanding Pakistan's remarkable turnaround, after an embarrassing loss to India in Birmingham, England will take to the field at Sophia Gardens with its nose ahead.
"I think we will have to evolve over the next two years in the lead-in to the World Cup, but we're moving in the right direction".
"Definitely, as a captain, it was a very important inning for me", he said.
"We looked at the game they played previously, 250, 270 would have been a good score".
It is a big ask for the Tigers to overcome the sub-continent's dominant nation and reach that first final but the 224-run partnership between Mahmudullah and Shakib Al Hasan in the five-wicket win over the Kiwis showed they have the players capable of producing an upset.
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