Australia's cricketing DNA is constructed by meticulousness and Pakistan’s by explosiveness. (Scorecard | Cricket News | Full Coverage)
When they meet each other in Bengaluru on Friday, Australia and Pakistan will have to regain those qualities in batting and bowling to infuse fresh life into their World Cup campaign, which is yet to go into overdrive.
Pakistan’s strength lies in their ability to play fearless cricket in the face of pressure. Make a quick rewind to their glory year of 1992 for validation of that remark.
But in this World Cup, they caved in at the first hint of real pressure, a match against India. There simply was no fight in their seven-wicket battering by the Men in Blue.
That mammoth chase of 345 at Hyderabad in their second match came on a featherbed against a vastly short-of-quality Sri Lanka, and taking it as a pointer would be sheer naivety.
Now, the Aussies offer another genuine pressure point to the Green Brigade. A side immersed in its turmoil, the five-time champions are no India but they are a rival not to be scoffed at.
Pakistan will know that very well because Australia holds a 69-34 advantage in ODIs and a 6-4 edge in the 50-over World Cups.
Pakistan perforce will have to shed their timidity and it should start from the top. Opener Imam-ul-Haq has made just 63 runs from three matches, and the left-hander needs to give more solid support to Abdullah Shafique, who has replaced the misfiring Fakhar Zaman.
They have another problem in the fluctuating form of skipper Babar Azam. Babar, Pakistan’s batting mainstay, made a fifty against India, but it was preceded by two ordinary outings against Netherlands and Sri Lanka.
Both these batters will have to contribute heavily against the Aussies, who have a pace attack that can potentially damage any batting line-up.
They also have to find a solution for the over-reliance of the middle-order on Mohammad Rizwan. The likes of Saud Shakeel, who made a fifty against the Netherlands, and the hard-hitting Iftikhar Ahmed need to find the road that leads them to consistency.
In the absence of injured pacer Naseem Shah, Pakistan has leaned heavily on the 23-year-old shoulders of Shaheen Shah Afridi but the left-arm pacer is nowhere near his best in the tournament.
Afridi will have to rediscover his pace and swing, the combination that makes him so lethal in white-ball formats.
Shadab Khan, their vice-captain and leg-spinner, has neither been able to chip in with the ball nor with the bat in this edition of the World Cup. It will not be a big surprise if leggie Usama Mir comes in place for him on the morrow.
At the other end of the spectrum, the Aussies are in an even bigger hole. The defeats against India and South Africa have put them in an unenvious position where even one more loss can further peg back their semifinal ambitions.
Their victory over Sri Lanka is just a baby step as they have to build on it to reach the knockout stage.
The batters are the main culprits for pushing the Aussies into that squishy place. Apart from Josh Inglis no other Australian batsman has made a fifty in this event, and Marnus Labuschagne is the only batter to have scored more than 100 runs in total.
Imagine, Mitchell Starc (55) has more runs against his name than Glenn Maxwell (49) and almost as many as Steve Smith (65), David Warner (65) and Mitchell Marsh (59) from three matches.
If anything, it shows a total downtime of their batting unit, and they need to better it against Pakistan.
But that does not absolve the Australian bowlers from their faults. While Starc, Adam Zampa and Josh Hazlewood have tried to keep things tight, skipper Pat Cummins remains a loose end in their bowling.
Cummins’ mojo in red ball cricket has not percolated to his white ball outings, at least consistently, and the 30-year-old will have to find his champion self in Bengaluru.
But the only hindrance to that is the smooth deck and shorter boundaries at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, often a friend of the batters.
Teams:
Australia: Pat Cummins (c), Steve Smith, Alex Carey (wk), Josh Inglis (wk), Sean Abbott, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, David Warner, Adam Zampa, Mitchell Starc.
Pakistan: Babar Azam (c), Shadab Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Abdullah Shafique, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Salman Ali Agha, Mohammad Nawaz, Usama Mir, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi, Mohammad Wasim.
Match starts at 2 PM.
