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Australia will be gunning for an unassailable 2-0 lead when they take on Pakistan in the second Test of their series as the Melbourne Cricket Ground will play host to the Boxing Day Test match. Follow the live scores and blog of this first day’s play from 10:30am local time here on The Roar.
Australia are 1-0 up but they will do well not to forget how they carved out that lead. It was a Test where they looked to be on their way to winning with some ease at most stages of the game but for Pakistan to come as close as 39 runs to their target of 490 would have been a wake-up call.
Pakistan’s usual issues in Test cricket have revolved around their brittle batting and that looked to have come to the fore in the first innings of that Gabba Test. It had been no different when they went down to New Zealand by a 2-0 margin and a score of 490 shouldn’t have caused the Aussie bowlers too much sweat.
Especially given Pakistan batted under the lights during early in their second innings, on a Gabba surface that looked to have enough assistance on it for the seamers.
The win aside, however, Australia’s biggest positive comes from the way their batsmen have gone about their business. The lack of experience notwithstanding, Matt Renshaw and Pete Handscomb seem to have done well to cement their spots in the side and despite Nic Maddinson’s poor start to his career, the selectors will be happy with two of their three new guys having done well.
Steven Smith has named the same XI for the second Test as well, which gives Maddinson another chance to get a score. Hilton Cartwright was the other option for Smith but for now, he has decided to retain a winning eleven, a decision aimed at giving his players a feeling of stability.
Pakistan will announce their team at the toss and it will be interesting to see if they decide to back the same side that went down narrowly at the Gabba. The batting’s issues in the first innings revolved around their senior batsmen’s lack of runs – both Misbah ul Haq and Younis Khan continued their failures and if the side needs to come out strongly, the pair will need to contribute substantially.
Asad Shafiq’s century in the second dig at the Gabba could well be the leading light for the pair as would be the gritty effort of Sami Aslam in the first innings but the bottom line is simple – Pakistan need to bat much better as a team if they want to compete.
Australia will be favourites but the slower nature of the MCG surface could be of help to Pakistan. Whether captain Misbah can skipper and inspire them to a win in conditions Pakistan have always found difficult to win Tests remains to be seen.
Follow the live scores and blog of this first day’s play of the second Test between Australia and Pakistan from 10.30am local time on Monday here on The Roar.
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