Pakistan go to Boxing Day looking for a Christmas miracle،
A question looms over this team before the series even begins: Would Sarfaraz Ahmed be rewarded for a phenomenal home series against New Zealand with a starting place in conditions he may never have gotten used to? or Mohammad Rizwan, who enjoyed moderate success. in Australia on the last tour here, but he suffered a drop in overall form, taking his place.
Sarfaraz retained his place for the Perth Test but looked the least comfortable of all the Pakistani batters and scored 7 runs in two innings. Doubts about his retention never diminished, even during that successful New Zealand series with the bat. This is one aspect of the game in which young Rizwan has surpassed Sarfaraz for a long time now.
The new training and selection committee led by Mohammad Hafeez and Wahab Riaz made last-minute calls ahead of the first Test, and although selection in Pakistan has often tended to be fluid, ESPNcricinfo understands that Rizwan has been given the green light to line up. for the second Test as wicketkeeper. He batted in the first innings of Pakistan's two-day warm-up match against a Victorian XI side, scoring 50 before bowing out. Sarfaraz, meanwhile, made 43 runs from two dismissals, falling to the lead following a short delivery off the last ball of the match.
It gets even more complicated when you get to the bowlers. For some teams, choosing a bowling attack means sifting through intense competition for spots. There are too many players good enough to make it, but only a limited number of spots to fill. To call it a puzzle would almost be the personification of a first world problem. It's the sort of dilemma Australia briefly went through earlier in the northern hemisphere summer, when they attempted to fill two fast bowling spots with three top-class quicks in Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Scott Boland.
Boland continues to knock on the door and would feature in many Test teams, but the reliability and consistency of the first two will see him miss his field again on Boxing Day. In fact, the Australian attack is so full of options that they sent one of the fast bowlers, Lance Morris, back to their BBL franchise, the Perth Scorchers.
For Pakistan, on their current tour of Australia, the selection has been more about the last man standing. Plagued by injuries and devoid of options, second and third choice players were included in the playing XI, a few were flown back from Pakistan at short notice to provide cover, while poor form also forced the hands of visitors.
Pakistan's unavailables so far include Naseem Shah, Khurram Shahzad and Abrar Ahmed due to injury, Noman Ali struck down by acute appendicitis and Haris Rauf because he completely refused to take part in the series. And that's without mentioning the changes necessary for tactical reasons; given the way the Perth Test went, there is good reason to do so.
Imam-ul-Haq was the only other potentially unstable member of Pakistan's top six, although a half-century in Perth secured him a starting place on Tuesday at the MCG. It is at the other end that Pakistan's thought processes are confused and options are few. An injury to Abrar forced them to decide to do without a specialist spinner in Perth, a bowling combination that has almost never seen a visiting team take 20 wickets in the city.
Pakistan would be opposed to fielding a similar line-up of three right-arm fast bowlers with a low ceiling in terms of pace. Shahzad is injured anyway, and Faheem Ashraf's ordinary performance in the first Test means he is expected to miss out. Although he did not contribute with the bat, his replacement with a bowler lengthens the tail of a team that was bundled out for 89 in 30.2 overs in their last innings.
Devoid of other comprehensive options, and keeping in mind Pakistan's reluctance to once again embark on an all-out attack, one thing becomes clear: the return of Sajid Khan. Although he was generally ineffective against Australia on Pakistani surfaces last year, and even a young Victorian team had no trouble facing him at Junction Oval, he arrives simply by elimination. Abrar continues to treat an injury and Noman has appendicitis. Mohammad Nawaz will arrive too late to be a factor for Melbourne, and that means Sajid is all Pakistan have.
Pakistan also have a decision to make on the identity of the third fast bowler, and that is where the uncertainty is greatest. Aamer Jamal's impressive debut gives him confidence to line up alongside Shaheen Shah Afridi, but which of Hasan Ali, Mir Hamza and Mohammad Wasim Jnr will get the nod remains an open question. Wasim Jnr is the quickest of the three, and with express pace in an extremely limited offering for Pakistan, it gives him an edge. It helped that he was Pakistan's most economical bowler during the tour match; while Hamza and Hasan were at 5.30 and 4.41 respectively, Wasim gave away just 16 runs in seven overs.
Christmas Day is something of a family event at the MCG, with the Australian players coming out for a light workout, their loved ones in tow, young children running around the field. And even though it doesn't have the same cultural significance in Pakistan, they are the ones who seem to need a miracle. For Hafeez and Shan Masood, it's all about thinking caps rather than party hats as they worry about selecting a team that gives them the best chance of silencing the biggest crowd in Test cricket: Boxing Day at the 'G.
