The first match of the three-Test series between Pakistan and Australia will start tomorrow in Rawalpindi and both the teams are determined...
The first match of the three-Test series between Pakistan and Australia will start tomorrow in Rawalpindi and both the teams are determined to take the lead in the series by showing excellent performance.
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| Australian team to play a Test match on Pakistani soil after 24 years: Photo: AP |
The Australian team has come to Pakistan to play a Test series after 24 years and the first Test match between the two teams is starting from tomorrow.
It is feared that the Test match between the two teams will be affected by the rain and even today both the teams had to cancel the practice session due to rain.
The first and second days of the match are forecast to be clear but light and heavy rain is expected in the last three days.
Despite the rain and no practice session, both Pat Cummins and Babar Azam are excited and ready for the series and all 16,000 tickets for the first day of the match have been sold out.
The Australian team has not visited Pakistan since 1998 due to which they do not have much information about these wickets. However, the wicket of Rawalpindi generally supports fast bowlers and is conducive to Australian pace attack.
"It looks like a good wicket, but we will examine the wicket again before the team is selected," Cummins told an online press conference before the match.
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Australia are expected to feature three fast bowlers: Mitchell Starc, Jose Hazelwood and captain Pat Cummins.
Despite the injuries of key players in the national team, Cummins refrained from acknowledging the hosts as weak and said that it would be detrimental to his team but other players were available to replace the injured players.
Despite beating England 0-4 in the Ashes series, Pat Cummins is not ready to consider his team a favorite for the series.
"Victory against England doesn't make sense here but we are lucky to have a strong squad in which a few players have done very well but we are not aware of these conditions," he said.
It may be recalled that the Pakistan team lost the services of Hassan Ali and Faheem Ashraf before the start of the Test series which will not be available to the team in the first Test match.
Read more: Harris Kod victim, Naseem Shah joins squad for first Test against Australia
Also, fast bowler Harris Rauf is not available for the first test as he is in isolation due to the Corona virus.
On the other hand, Pakistan captain Babar Azam also admitted that the national team will miss Hassan Ali and Fahim Ashraf.
He said that Hassan Ali is a match winner and Faheem Ashraf bowls as well as batting well due to which our combination has been disturbed.
However, he said that we still have Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah who are bowling very well while Fawad Alam and Mohammad Rizwan are also in good batting form.
Unlike Australia, Pakistan is likely to strengthen the field of spinners instead of fast bowlers and include Noman Ali and Sajid Khan in the final XI as well as Iftikhar Ahmed.
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Babar Azam said that the Australian team is strong and experienced but we are also determined to perform well and will give them a tough time.
Babar Azam said in an online press conference that after 24 years the Australian team has come to Pakistan and we are very excited, we have prepared for the Test series, hopefully our matches will be good and we will continue our performance. Giving Australia a tough time while maintaining.
He said that fast bowlers get more help in Rawalpindi but spinners also play an important role while this wicket is also helpful for batsmen.
The captain of the national team made it clear that we will not take the Australian team lightly but have a full plan against them so the people will get to see good cricket.
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The second Test between Pakistan and Australia will be played in Karachi from March 12, while the two teams will compete in the third Test in Lahore from March 21.
After the Test series, ODI and T20 series will also be played between the two teams.
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