Australia achieved something significant by drawing the first Test against Pakistan but starting today they have a chance to do something truly special – win a Test series in Asia.
Since Australia’s golden era ended a decade ago, they quite incredibly have won just three out of 24 Tests in Asia and, for a long time, were utterly uncompetitive on that continent.
A nadir was reached in 2016 when Australia was thrashed 3-0 by an inexperienced Sri Lankan side which no longer boasted batting stars Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Tillakaratne Dilshan.
That humiliating defeat seemed to galvanise Australia to improve their dire efforts in Asia, with a fresh focus on preparing thoroughly for these tours.
Last year, before their four-Test series in India, Australia held an intensive training camp at home on pitches specially prepared to behave like turning Asian surfaces, and then did a second camp at ICC headquarters in Dubai.
Then, before this current series against Pakistan, Australia sent half of the XI they fielded in the first Test to India to represent Australia A, before arriving in the UAE to do further preparation.
Australia had gotten used to struggling in Asia. (AAP Image/Julian Smith)
Suddenly, after years of being roadkill in Asia, Australia are becoming a competitive side in these conditions. Not a good team, but a competitive one. That is as much as they could have hoped for given the extremely low base from which they started after the Sri Lanka debacle, at which point they were on an 11-Test win-less streak in Asia.
Australia began their turnaround in March last year by handing India the only loss they have suffered in their past 30 home Tests. The tourists were actually in a position to win that series half-way through the fourth and final Test, before being overwhelmed by the world’s number one Test team.
Australia then backed that up with a solid display in Bangladesh, where they easily won the second Test and lost by just 20 runs in the first.
Those results, however, were achieved with the help of their two best Test batsmen, Steve Smith and David Warner. Without that pair, and also missing pace stars Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, Australia were widely expected to be steamrolled by Pakistan in this series.
Few cricket followers would have been surprised when Australia conceded a monstrous 280-run lead at Dubai – they were headed for the sort of thrashing that always seemed likely.
What did provide a shock was the manner in which Australia’s oft-flaky batting lineup refused to wilt, even after they were gutted by the loss of 3-0 early late on day four.
This batting miracle was not engineered by the usual suspects like Smith, Warner or Shaun Marsh, each of whom have produced remarkable Test knocks on foreign soil in the past.
Instead it was the product of bloody-minded graft by Usman Khawaja, a man who had previously laboured overseas, new captain Tim Paine and debutants Travis Head and Aaron Finch.
Australia’s Usman Khawaja (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)
That was the second time in their past five Tests in Asia that Australia had willed themselves to a rousing draw. In the third Test in India, Australia were 4-63 still needing to survive another 71 overs to avoid defeat, when Marsh and Peter Handscomb combined to stonewall for 62 overs.
This means that, across their past seven Tests in Asia, Australia have produced four commendable performances – two comprehensive victories and two gritty draws. The latter draw has given this rag-tag Australian side – missing so many key players – the chance to achieve a series win which would have been unthinkable a fortnight ago.
The first step, now, in executing that monumental task is earning some luck with the toss. Abu Dhabi has long been one of the flattest pitches in the world which makes batting first ever-so important, particularly for an Australian side which is so inexperienced.
If they can win the toss and put up a good total in the first innings suddenly Pakistan will be the team which will suffer from the weight of pressure and expectations. It was under this kind of scrutiny that the Australian sides of the past decade so regularly subsided in Asia.
Can they now turn the tables and cause their opponents to crumble? If they do it will rank as one of the most unexpected Test series wins in Australian history.
Bunney
Roar Rookie
Yeah, nup!
Nudge
Roar Rookie
Spruce, Australia batted out a draw last year in India under Lehmann. Reckon they lasted the whole 5th day after being 3 wickets down at stumps day 4
Terry McKenna Member
Guest
Is it my imagination or do Australia loose important tosses.
John Erichsen
Roar Guru
That new S Marsh reboot showed promise in his test rebirth in South Africa, just as his introduction to test cricket had in Sri Lanka a couple of years earlier.
John Erichsen
Roar Guru
Yes.... A great test during the "caught Guptil bowled Martin" series. it resulted in Hughes being dropped for Ed Cowan and Khawja replaced by S Marsh for the home series against India a few weeks later. That series saw heaps of runs for Clarke and Ponting, decent returns for M Hussey and Warner, 206 runs @ 34 for Cowan and 17 runs @ 2.83 for Marsh. For most batsmen, that return would end a test career but Shaun knew if he kept knocking on the right door, he would return to the test line up. Of course, that door was his Dad's and a few phone calls and a couple of years later, we were introduced to S Marsh 2.0.
buddha9
Guest
looking at this list confirms what I've often thought which isn how many batsman came and went in that period: players who often started well and never kicked on man the list is endless -- Wood Dyson Yallop Kent Ritchie ( scored a ton on debut i think) Wellham, Darling , Phillips, ian davies there's more as well -- a lot of these players got in the team did ok some scored a ton or two, almost all of them looked good in patches but almost all of them were gone 4 years later and never played test cricket again -- the number is amazing -- i know the team was unstable but hey
John Erichsen
Roar Guru
That 123* in a total of 233, when the next highest individual score in the match was a pair of NZ 56's, shone a new light of Warner's suitability for test cricket.
John Erichsen
Roar Guru
Yep, batting at five and making 100* out of a total of 198, when Holding and Roberts had ripped through Laird for 4, Wood for 3, Greg Chappell for 0 and Border for 4. As good a test hundred as any ever scored. He gave Lillee and Alderman something to bowl at and the great DKL responded to have the Windies 4/10 at stumps on day one.
John Erichsen
Roar Guru
Its even less silly when Voges was coming off 684 runs in his last five innings at an average of 342.
Nick
Roar Guru
I did think about that, but then was reminded by his maiden century where he carried his bat in a losing cause and grafted out a very good century over the course of the day.
Ouch
Roar Rookie
Yep, Marsh and Lillie treated him like crap when he was given the captaincy, which i believe he never wanted. Rod Marsh, who was VC under Chappell was expecting to be given the gig.
Paul
Roar Guru
I think the other question could be, what would have happened if Warner had played? The match situation called for guys to bat with calmness and for a long time, two things which are completely alien to wee Davey. It's obviously hypothetical, but I think the Aussies were actually better off with out him, given the circumstances of the game
Nick
Roar Guru
The question I've asked myself since the draw (even during the draw) is what impact did the absence of Darren Lehmann have on that match result? There had been times when Australia have been asked to survive 120+ overs under his stewardship and Australia never even once looked like applying the mentality to try for a draw. Beautiful thing about cricket is that a draw is as good as a win sometimes. The team is all the more better for his departure.
Rellum
Roar Guru
He's cranked it up now. He is 12 off 61
Pope Paul VII
Roar Rookie
Webster 3 off 49 balls!
Pope Paul VII
Roar Rookie
Hughes 100* out of 198 (in at 3/8) vs WI boxing day 1981 is one of the greatest innings of all time.
Kangas
Roar Rookie
Hughes was a terrific player , but he got destroyed by his own teammates and eventually the windies Hughes century on the worst mcg pitch ever , Boxing Day 1980 is still one of the all time greatest knocks
Pope Paul VII
Roar Rookie
No worries Bushy, that team has always bewildered me. And same as you regarding Henriques selection in particular. Baffling.
Rellum
Roar Guru
Kim Hughes was a very talented batsmen. Things didn't end well with him and I don't think he scored the runs he was capable of, hence why he is not that highly regarded in the long term. Here he is against the Windies in the early 80's https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGUpPDdwJ3Y
The Bush
Roar Guru
I'll have to defer to you Rellum, I wasn't old enough to have seen him bat (or if I did, I don't remember it). All I can go off are his statistics, and an FC batting average of 36 and a test batting average of 37 suggests he was pretty average, even by the standards of the day, when batting averages were lower. Wessels averaged 50 in FC (41 in tests); Hookes averaged 50 in FC (though only 34 in tests); Jones averaged 50 in FC (40s in tests); Border averaged 50 and 50; Boon averaged 44 in FC cricket (43 in tests). And Hughes gave it away before things got really bad against the West Indies, who knows how low his average could have dropped if he'd played on for another 5 years for Australia. Definitely agree with your point that even in the '80s we had some world class batsmen in the side compared to the line up that will play today.