After winning the Men’s ODI World Cup and losing the T20I series against India, Australia is now ready to haunt in Test format at home. Australia will be hosting Pakistan for a 3-match home series for the ongoing World Test Championship.
As of now, Pakistan is topping the WTC points table with a 100% winning percentage. Pakistan has not defeated Australia in Australia for three decades.
Since Babar Azam has retired from Captaincy, Shan Masood will be leading the team. He will be a part of playing XI for the first time in 3 years. On the other hand, World Cup-winning captain Pat Cummins will lead the Kangaroos.
Australian opener David Warner will be taking retirement after this series. The squad includes:
Australia: Pat Cummins (C), David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Greene, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Lance Morris, Steve Smith, and Mitchell Starc
Pakistan: Babar Azam, Shan Masood (C), Imam Ul Haq, Aamir Jamal, Abdullah Shafiq, Sarfraz Ahmed (WK), Muhammad Rizwan (WK), Abrar Ahmed, Mir Hamza, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi, Faheem Ashraf, Khurram Shahzad, Muhammad Wasim Jr, Noman Ali, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, and Saud Shakeel
From Pakistan, Haris Rauf will be taking a break and might play Big Bash instead. Naseem Shah will not be available because of injury. Some names including Saim Ayub, Mir Hamza, Khurram Shahzad, Aamir Jamal, and Shan Masood will be seen in the green squad. These players are either debuting or coming back after the recent Quaid-e-Azam Trophy.
Schedule:
Pakistan will play a 4-day test match against the Prime Minister’s XI on the 6th of December in Canberra. The schedule for official matches is:
1st Test: 14 December-18 December, Perth Stadium
2nd Test: 26 December-30 December, Melbourne Stadium
3rd Test: 3 January-7 January, Sydney Stadium
Pakistan is coming up with a fresh squad and new leadership. Last year Pakistan hosted Australia for three matches and ended up losing 1-0. Those two draws and a whitewash against England damaged Pakistan’s position in the WTC.
Australia’s current squad has won ICC’s Test Championship and ICC’s World Cup this year. They would be looking ahead to carry the momentum in this tournament as well.
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