by bigfluffylemon » Fri Sep 28, 2018 5:31 am
I see no-one's made a thread about this yet. Not much interest on these boards at the moment.
Sep 29 - Oct 2: Tour match v Pak A, Dubai
Oct 7-11: First Test, Dubai
Oct 16-20: Second Test, Abu Dhabi
Australia Test squad: Tim Paine (c), Ashton Agar, Brendan Doggett, Aaron Finch, Travis Head, Jon Holland, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Shaun Marsh, Michael Neser, Matthew Renshaw, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc
Pakistan Test squad: Sarfraz Ahmed (c), Azhar Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam, Asad Shafiq, Haris Sohail, Usman Salahuddin, Yasir Shah, Shadab Khan, Bilal Asif, Mohammad Abbas, Hasan Ali, Wahab Riaz, Faheem Ashraf, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Rizwan
Australia's test squad looks unbelievably raw. This has to be one of the least experienced squads Australia has fielded in a long, long time. Five have never played a test, and only six have played more than 13. Of those, the Marsh brothers are serial underperformers, and Khawaja's record outside Australia is hopeless. Only Lyon, Starc and Siddle are of proven test class, and Siddle's past it.
The big news for Pakistan is that Amir has been dropped after a less-than-stellar couple of years since his return from his ban. Shame, but it had to happen. He had the talent to be up there with the best, but never seems to have got his mojo back since that five years out.
Pakistan are inconsistent travellers, but very very hard to beat in the UAE. Add in Australia's inexperience, weakness against spin, and the absence of Smith, Warner, Hazlewood and Cummins, and anything other than a 2-0 Pakistan victory will feel like an achievement for the Aussies, IMO.