Pakistan is under pressure to prevent a rout at the hands of their hosts after losing to Australia twice in a row. The Green Shirts will play the third and final Test of the Benaud-Qadir Trophy at Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) from January 3–7.
With two changes for the last Test of the series against Australia, the Shan Masood-led team hopes to finish the three-Test series on a good note.
Pakistan put up a valiant fight in Melbourne following their 360-run loss in Perth during the first day of the series, but Australia emerged victorious on the final day of play.
Shan is top of Pakistan’s run-scoring chart ahead of the series finale, having hit two half-centuries in the Boxing Day Test. After making his debut in the first game of the series, Aamir Jamal has taken the second-most wickets thus far. In two games, he has claimed 12 wickets, including a five-wicket haul.
Saim Ayub, the opening batsman, will make his Test debut when he took Imam-ul-Haq’s position in the next match between the two teams in Sydney. Saim had an outstanding domestic season and had earned his first Test call-up.
Spinner Sajid Khan has taken Shaheen Shah Afridi’s place in the side, as the left-arm pacer has been rested.
It is important to note that Pakistan will continue to implement the three modifications that were made prior to the MCG test.
In Melbourne, Mir Hamza, who entered the playing XI in lieu of an injured Khurram Shahzad, achieved his best-ever statistics. Throughout the game, he claimed six wickets, including a double-wicket maiden in Australia’s second innings.
Both Hasan Ali and Mohammad Rizwan, who came in for Sarfaraz Ahmed and Faheem Ashraf at MCG, respectively, have maintained their spots in the squad.
Masood, the captain of Pakistan, stated at the pre-game news conference, “We have learned from the mistakes we made in the first two matches.” Moving forward, it’s important to avoid making the same mistakes, particularly when playing against elite teams.
Moving forward, it’s important to avoid making the same mistakes, particularly when playing against elite teams. We will win a lot of Test matches in the future if we continue to play this way.
We had four excellent days of cricket in Melbourne, but there were multiple opportunities for us to take the lead. We’ll apply the knowledge gained. We are pleased with the path that our team is going in.
The captain remarked, “As a team and as individuals, we have never had any doubts when it comes to Shaheen.” His records show that he has bowled the most overs in world cricket in a long time. We must see to it that he is taken care of.
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“Workload and fitness impact performance,” he continued. Our all-format players have been playing cricket nonstop for some time; in the last three years, they have participated in three World Cups and one World Test Championship. In an effort to balance workload and match significance, we have been working to remedy issue.
“In difficult circumstances, players like Mir Hamza, Aamir Jamal, and Khurram Shahzad have performed admirably. This illustrates how well our domestic system has worked by strengthening our bench. In order to increase the number of players in each department, we also want to provide our batters comparable opportunities.
Shan Masood (c), Saim Ayub, Abdullah Shafique, Babar Azam, Saud Shakeel, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Salman Ali Agha, and other members of the Pakistani playing XI for the SCG Test
