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A three-Test series against a high-class Pakistan bowling attack is a perfect opportunity to analyse Australia’s new batting line-up.
With the tourists’ bowling attack being both skilful in pace and spin, we’ll see the merits of the rejigged Australian top six.
Given the first Test will be played under lights at the Gabba, the ball will likely swing. This plays into a strength of the Pakistan pacemen, and a noted weakness of the Aussie batsmen.
All the focus will be on the youngsters in the Australian line-up, but how the incumbents fare will largely dictate their prospects.
The duo of Steven Smith and David Warner are standouts, but Usman Khawaja looms as the centrepiece after his breathtaking 145 in the third Test against South Africa.
His innings in Adelaide exuded real skill and temperament, but also showed his willingness to take a more leading role in the batting.
If he can continue this form, it will take pressure off Smith and Warner as well as provide more protection for the younger batsmen.
Khawaja is exceptional against pace, but he has a gaping weakness against spin, setting him up for exploitation by Pakistan’s masterful leg-spinner Yasir Shah. The pitches might conceal this weakness, given they offer little support for spin, but the guile and craft of Shah is likely to strip him bare once again.
Matt Renshaw’s measured batting style at the top is just what the team needs, providing the perfect foil for Warner’s attacking flair.
With the likes of Mohammad Amir and Wahab Riaz swinging the ball at real pace, it will be the ultimate challenge for Renshaw.
Though he is a batsman of immense promise, he is still relatively green and far from the finished article, which offers hope and invites doubt.
In the middle order, Peter Handscomb and Nic Maddinson arrive at the Gabba having experienced differing debuts.
Handscomb notched a half-century, while Maddinson got castled for a duck by a brute of a ball from Kagiso Rabada.
The standout with Handscomb was his technique – or lack of it. He often moved back perilously close to his stumps, leaving a glaring gap that was frequently apparent between his bat and pad, and inviting an LBW dismissal.
He is the epitome of the new age ‘eye player’ in the mould of Smith, who forsakes technique in preference of hawk-like vision.
It would be unfair to dismiss him after his efforts in Adelaide, but against high calibre swing, seam, spin and bowling smarts of Pakistan’s bowling, he will need to be superb to succeed.
Maddinson was an unfathomable selection on many points, largely for his lack of merit as well as the snub to a more worthy candidate in Kurtis Patterson.
His selection seems to tap into the selectors’ desire to have an attacking batsman at six who can be a game changer. This is equally curious, given a similar style of player in Travis Head, who has been on the brink of the Test team as well as an incumbent in the ODI side, was overlooked.
Maddinson is destined to fail and be replaced by Shaun Marsh once he is fit.
And as for Smith and Warner, the unhealthy reliance on the duo to carry the batting, looks likely to continue.
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