The Ultimate Australia v Pakistan preview

Tim Paine and Azhar Ali posing with the series trophy.

After one of the longest winter’s of cricket in recent memory, the Marsh Cup all but completed, the WBBL in full swing.. the time for talking is over, because the home summer is officially here, as the GABBA prepares to host the first test between Pakistan and Australia.

The successful integration of Steve Smith and David Warner into the national set up, and their successes both in England (for Smith) and during the recent T20 series against Sri Lanka and Pakistan (for Warner), the horrors of last summer are behind us. Despite a youthful and exciting Pakistan arriving on our shores, the back to full strength Australian side are undoubtedly favourites to take a clean sweep of this series.

Despite a changing of the guard in Pakistani cricket since the last time they toured, the gulf between Australia and Pakistan in these conditions remains the same. Former captain Misbah-up-Haq has begun a three year tenure as coach and head selector in September, but his new role is off to a less than impressive start. This will be his first test match in charge, the conditions that his side faces here in Australia is undoubtedly one that his side needs to learn to adapt to, particularly with the new Test Championship underway and every point vital.

But it’s not all doom and gloom, Pakistan can take much pride and hope as a result of the form they shown in the tour matches against Australia A and CA XI, however, both of those matches were on the bouncy decks of Perth, not the seaming pitch of the GABBA.

In that Australia A game, they managed to knock over a team with 5 top order test hopefuls for just 122, that is after having them 9 for 59. It was impressive.

But, tour matches, and test matches, are different beasts. And with this clearly being a period of change for Pakistan, with incumbent skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed sacked and dropped for Azhar Ali. Despite the obvious challanges facing Pakistan which leave them vulnerable, it's hard to assume Australia are firing on all cylinders.

With Burns and Head failing in the recent Australia A match, they remain likely to take their spots in the final XI. Add that to the fact the majority of the runs in the recent Ashes series came off the blades of Steve Smith, Matt Wade or Marnus Labuschagne, there is enough there for Pakistan to get a spring in their step.

David Warner's horrid winter looks behind him, after finding form in both Sheffield Shield and the recently completed T20I's, one would assume he will add depth to the Australian batting line up.

History

Overall record: Played 64, Australia 31, Pakistan 15, drawn 18

Overall record in Australia: Played 35, Australia 24, Pakistan 4, drawn 7

Overall record at The Gabba: Played 5, Australia 4, Pakistan 0, drawn 1

Overall series record: Played 23, Australia 11, Pakistan 7, drawn 5

Overall series record in Australia: Played 12, Australia 9, Pakistan 0, drawn 3

Last three series

2018: Pakistan won 1-0 in UAE (two-Test series)

2016-17: Australia won 3-0 in Australia (three-Test series)

2014: Pakistan won 2-0 in UAE (two-Test series)

Last three matches in Australia

Dec 15-19 2016: Australia won by 39 runs at the Gabba (D/N)

Dec 26-30 2016: Australia won by an innings and 18 runs at the MCG

Jan 3-7 2017: Australia won by 220 runs at the SCG

Last three matches at The Gabba

Dec 15-19, 2016: Australia won by 39 runs

Nov 5-9, 1999: Australia won by 10 wickets

Nov 9-13, 1995: Australia won by an innings and 126 runs

TEAMS

Australia

Australia named a 14-man squad for the first test, however that was reduced to just 13 on the back of James Pattinson’s suspension. His omission makes the potential make up of the final XI a little clearer, with Starc set to join Hazelwood and Cummins as a three pronged pace attack alongside Nathan Lyon, with Michael Neser missing out.

Travis Head or Cameron Bancroft will be the other to miss out, with it firming to be the later who will carry drinks in Brisbane.

1. David Warner

2. Joe Burns

3. Marnus Labuschagne

4. Steve Smith

5. Travis Head

6. Matt Wade

7. Tim Paine (C, WK)

8. Pat Cummins

9. Mitchell Starc

10. Nathan Lyon

11. Josh Hazelwood

Pakistan

There are plenty of players who’s spots within the side are up in the air heading into their tour to Australia. Only captain Azhar Ali, Mohammad Rizwan, Yasir Shah and Mohammad Abbas are locks for Pakistan, with virtually every other player in the squad in doubt to fill the remaining seven spots.

Centuries to Assad Shafiq and Babar Azam against Australia A, all but locked themselves into the side for the first test. However, after three failures in the tour matches, Haris Sohail is unlikely to take first drop, despite limited options to replace him.

Iftikhar Ahmed and all-rounder Kashif Bhatti have locked horns are in a battle for the number six spot.

With the ball, 16 year old tearaway Naseem Shah is favoured to make his test debut, after only 7 first class matches. Shaheen Shah Africa and Imran Khan, who shared the new pill in the most recent tour match, will battle it out for the remaining spot.

1. Azhar Ali (c)

2. Shan Masood

3. Imam-ul-Haq

4. Asad Shafiq

5. Babar Azam

6. Kashif Bhatti

7. Mohammad Rizwan (wk)

8. Yasir Shah

9. Mohammad Abbas

10. Shaheen Afridi

11. Naseem Shah

Star Players

AUSTRALIA - Steve Smith

No surprises here. Backing Steve Smith to be the player to watch is like putting $50 on Winx. You know it's a sure thing, you won't get much back in return when you get it right, and on the off chance it flops, you'll make up for it next time. His Ashes series, which was his return to Test cricket after that infamous sandpaper scandal, saw him reap 771 runs for 7 digs. Three hundreds, and three fifties, one failure of 23. Smith will be looking to continue that form particularly now he is back on Australian soil.

PAKISTAN - Babar Azam

Azam is to Pakistan what Smith is to Australia, or Kohli is to India. He is their star batsman, but has only returned one century from 21 innings in Test Cricket. He is comparable to Kohli in the ODI arena, and arguably better than Kohli in T20 cricket. But is giving up almost 30 runs on his average to Steve Smith. If he wants to be considered one of the big batsman in the world, he needs to turn his test returns around, and there is no better place as a batsman than to do so than in Australia.

PREDICTION

Australia are just so good in their own conditions against teams who aren’t. That wasn’t the case last summer, of course, but back at full strength against a struggling Pakistan on their fortress Gabba, it’s hard to see the Australian’s not picking up the win here.

FIXTURES

First Test at the GABBA, Brisbane, November 21-25 from 10am AEST - Channel 7 and FoxSports

Second Test at Adelaide Oval, Adelaide, November 29-December 3 from 2:30pm AEST - Channel 7 and FoxSports