Thanks to @Titan24 for this write-up previewing the first Test series with Misbah-ul-Haq and Azhar Ali at the helm.

By Titan24 (13th November, 2019)

As the dust of hyped T20I series between number 1 and 2 Twenty20 sides in the world settles with disappointment for Pakistani fans, another phase of the tour in the form of Test cricket is about to start.

The series consists of two Tests and Pakistan will play 2 warm up matches versus Cricket Australia XI before the series. While it looks like preparation time along with the amount of Test matches to be played will not be enough to get accustomed to the conditions and showing the true potential of the visiting team but, at the same time it gives Pakistan a chance to have just one good Test match and do what they have never done in Australia before and that is to draw a series there.

Previous best outing of Pakistan in Australia was a one off Test match in 1965 at Melbourne cricket ground which they were able to draw with memorable century in the first innings by Hanif Mohammad following it up with a score of 93 in Pakistan's second innings. Further along with South Africa, Australia is the only team against which Pakistan has W/L ratio of less than 0.5 and against all other oppositions except England the ratio is pretty impressive with it being more than 1. This highlights the importance of the Australian tour considering it is one of the only two milestones Pakistan is yet to achieve in its cricket history and other one being winning a test series in South Africa.

This series has a lot more important aspects associated with it for both the teams. For Australia it's the homecoming Test series of their two icons of this era in Steve Smith and David Warner. The already made their mark in T20s at home with Warner scoring his first ever T20 international hundred against Sri Lanka and Smith producing one of the best knocks of his T20 international career against Pakistan with 80 runs. Australian team will be coming into the Test series in pretty good form after retaining The Ashes by drawing the series in England. Some questions to answer for the hosts would centre around who will open the batting with Warner and which batsmen will get selected for the middle-order which looked weak apart from Smith in ashes series.

There will also be eyes on the young Will Pucovski who is considered the next big thing in Australian cricketing circles and is expected to be named in the squad for the series. Marnus Labuschagne is another young batsman from Australia who impressed everybody with his temperament and solid technique in The Ashes series and will be someone to look out for in the Australian batting line-up.

As always Australian bowling in their conditions is pretty strong with Pat Cummins the leader of the attack who is not only the best Australian pacer in Tests but is number 1 ranked bowler ICC’s Test Rankings for bowlers as well. The choice of two pacers to support Cummins will also be something Australia thinking about especially with James Pattinson's return to the Australian setup since this year's Ashes and the three pacers will be supported by the ever reliable Nathan Lyon who is possibly the greatest off spinner produced by Australia and currently one of the best spinners in the format.

At the same time, Pakistan will be entering the series with new captain in the form of Azhar Ali. The captain himself along with Asad Shafiq are the visitor’s most experienced batsmen and they will be looking to prove their class again after pretty ordinary last couple of years. Despite their lacklustre form, what they can take positive from is that in the last tour of Australia in 2016 both of them produced the two of the most memorable performances in the series for Pakistan. Azhar Ali with his double hundred at MCG and Asad Shafiq's 137 at The Gabba where he almost snatched victory from the jaws of defeat and Pakistan fell short by just 39 runs.

When talking about batting how can one forget the shining star of Pakistan batting line-up in Babar Azam. Babar scored 90 odd in his first tour of New Zealand when everyone around him was failing, being the highest scorer in first innings of first Test in tour of England where he scored 68 coming in at 118/3 before getting retired hurt but not before changing the momentum in favor of Pakistan and playing a role for his team to win the match by 9 wickets. Who can also forget Babar in his first South African tour dominating arguable the greatest pacer of this era Dale Steyn by hitting him with series of 4s. What he has in store for his first tour of Australia is something only time can tell but, he has the skills and class to leave his mark in this tour as well.

Haris Sohail is another name which we cannot ignore in Pakistani batting line-up due to the class he possesses as he has shown in few of his ODI knocks in the World Cup. He was also the highest scorer for Pakistan in the last Test series they played versus New Zealand. Point to note is that this will only be his second overseas Test tour, the first one was England and Ireland tour in 2018, so he will be looking to prove himself to the world with what he can do in Australian conditions as well.

When talking about Pakistan one thing we can't ignore is their pace battery and this time it's even more exciting with the world record of having 3 teenage pacers in a Test series and that too on the tour of Australia. Shaheen Shah Afridi is the more accomplished name than the other two and has already broken a number of records in his first World Cup with being the youngest ever to take a 5fer in the World Cup also breaking the record of best bowling figures at Lord’s cricket ground along with being the best figures by a Pakistani bowler in the World Cup and not only that, he was the 4th highest wicket taker in ICC’s mega event. Whilst these good performances are in the shorter format of the game, they do clearly manifest the potential this 6ft 6in young cricketer who has already played 3 Tests.

Naseem Shah, a 16 (or 17) years old cricketer, is another young pacer Pakistan will have to offer and he is someone rated pretty highly in the domestic and junior circles. In his last Quaid-e-Azam Trophy match in this season he took a 6fer in the innings and made some First-Class as well as international veterans look clueless with his pace and movement. Mohammad Musa is last of the young brigade but definitely not the least, while his First-Class numbers don’t show much but he is someone who generates unexpected pace and nip for the batsman from the good length. While Musa doesn’t have the conventional fast bowler's height, that shouldn’t let anyone doubt the ability he possesses with ball in hand.

Mohammad Abbas and Yasir Shah will be the most experienced bowlers in the squad and Abbas will have to prove that even in Australia he can continue to be effective with his accuracy and seam movement while Yasir with his leg spin will have to show that he can turn it around in overseas Tests considering his previous overseas outings which except for one memorable 10fer against England, haven’t inspired too much confidence in his wicket-taking abilities.

While Australia is the firm favorite to win series against Pakistan, Azhar Ali and his side – and Misbah-ul-Haq to some extent, can draw some comfort from that the fact that we have seen much more improbable things happen in cricket such as Sri Lanka’s sound 0-2 beating of South Africa in South Africa earlier this year.

Discuss!