Pakistan and Australia square off with eye on the big prize
sharjah — Just after Pakistan’s stand-in captain Shoaib Malik and his Australian counterpart Aaron Finch posed with the trophy at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Thursday, an Australian journalist quipped to Finch saying it was a beautiful looking trophy. It sure was very well designed and well crafted, a nice piece of silverware for the winners at the end of the five-match ODI series.
Both teams will be definitely looking to lay their hands on it but the eyes, quite surely, will be on the big prize — the World Cup. With 69 days to go to cricket’s showpiece in the 50-over format, this series represents one of the last few chances for Pakistan as well as Australia to fine-tune things before they board the plane to England and Wales.
Pakistan have a run of 10 fixtures, including these five in Sharjah, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, to ramp up their preparations, while this is Australia’s last opportunity to get things in order before the five-time world champions embark on their title defence.
Apart from these five games, Pakistan also play five one-day internationals against England and that assumes even more significance with the series to be played in England, the hosts of the World Cup. Australia though wrap things up with this series before going straight into the World Cup with their opener against Afghanistan.
The Australians come into this series on the back of a magnificent series win against India and that should make for an intriguing contest against Pakistan. They arrived on these shores with an unchanged squad although personnel will change with Steve Smith and David Warner shoe-ins for the World Cup. Meanwhile, a gruelling schedule has meant Pakistan have made some wholesale changes to their line-up. Pakistan have been on the road since August with the tour of Zimbabwe followed by a series against Australia in September-October. They then embarked on a tour to New Zealand in November-December and then travelled to South Africa in December-January. Add to that, the players also featured in the Pakistan Super League (PSL).
That has meant they have rested six players, including regular skipper Sarfraz Ahmed. Other players like Hasan Ali, Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Shadab Khan have also been given a much-needed break from the rigours of international cricket.
Their absence gives a chance for some of the new players to audition for World Cup spots.
And coach Mickey Arthur said that it was the right way to go.
“We designed this series for our players for the simple fact that we want to test our best bench players,” said Arthur. “There was planning, sometimes people think that its ad hoc. We want to test our bench-strength so that we could have a look at our final squad and combination. We know our major players for the World Cup.”
Players like opener Shan Masood, Abid All, pacer Mohammad Abbas as well as tearaway rookie quick Mohammad Hasnain get the chance to show what they are capable of. Middle-order batsman Umar Akmal has also been recalled.
“For us, it isn’t so much about Australia, this is about us and those positions for the World Cup and the opportunity created for a lot of players because for us, we need to find who our players are for every position. If we could do that out of this series, then it would be good for us. To be honest, it’s a new squad. This is a series of opportunities,” Arthur said.