SYDNEY: Sunday’s opening match of the Twenty20 International series in Sydney not only begins Pakistan’s tour of Australia but also their preparations for the T20 World Cup that is now less than a year away.

Pakistan’s schedule in the next 12 months is filled with plenty of 20-over cricket — they play Australia, Bangladesh, England, Ireland, South Africa and in the Asia Cup before the tournament but arguably none will be as important to their World Cup preparations as this series, knowing that the World Cup will also be played in Australia.

Even though a year is a long time in cricket, performances from this tour will play a huge role when Pakistan head coach and chief selector Misbah-ul-Haq sits down to pick the World Cup squad next year.

Pakistan are coming into this tour on the back of a 3-0 series loss in Lahore at the hands of Sri Lanka, and the fact that they have lost six out of their seven T20Is this year has put Pakistan’s status as the world No.1 ranked team under threat.

Indeed, should Australia manage a 3-0 sweep as they inflicted on Sri Lanka, then Aaron Finch’s side would leapfrog Pakistan in the ICC standings. If that were to happen and England also sweep New Zealand, then Pakistan would slip to third.

It cannot be denied that Pakistan have some of the best short-format cricketers in young skipper Babar Azam, Mohammad Amir, Shadab Khan, Imad Wasim and Fakhar Zaman who have been vital to Pakistan’s rise, but there are couple of other factors that have played into their hands as well.

No other team takes bilateral T20s as seriously as Pakistan. A sport-crazy nation where even one defeat in T20s can draw plenty of criticism, Pakistan do not take any series lightly, while other nations have not been afraid to rest marquee players.

For example, Mitchell Starc is Australia’s premier limited overs bowler but has featured in only five of 31 T20 matches since the last World Cup. Pat Cummins has played in eight and Steve Smith had not played any until his three in the recent clean sweep of Sri Lanka.

Babar, on the other hand, has only missed seven games in 2018 with a wrist injury since his debut in 2016.

Pakistan have won their past five T20s against Australia but none of those games featured Starc, Cummins, Smith or David Warner. Australia are also using this home season as a preparation for the T20 World Cup and are playing with their first-choice players which makes Pakistan’s challenge all the more daunting.

If Pakistan are to win the series their power-hitters will need to fire. Only 23 of 821 balls faced by Pakistan batsmen in 2019 have been hit for six — just 2.8 per cent of deliveries, which is lowest among the ICC’s full member teams in 2019.

As the pitches in three games in Sydney, Canberra and Perth are likely to favour stroke play, the performance of Pakistan’s power-hitters Fakhar, Asif Ali and Khushdil Shah will play a key role in the outcome of the series.

Pakistan have been carrying Asif for more than a year despite little returns with the hope of solving their six-hitting woes and now have also added Khushdil to play a similar role. Asif has been a huge success in the PSL but is yet to fire at T20 international level. He has 316 runs and a strike-rate 130.04 but averages 19.75 and is yet to score a fifty.

This series will also be a litmus test for Babar, who will be captaining Pakistan for the first time. The 25 years old is the No.1 T20 batsman in the world but how he copes with the pressure of captaincy remains to be seen. If he does well here, he could also be in line to captain the ODI team.

Pakistan have historically struggled in Australia, it is the toughest touring place for them — and many other teams besides. The last time Pakistan won a series Down Under in any format was 17 years ago when a Waqar Younis-led side won a three-match ODI series in Melbourne and Brisbane.

Since then Pakistan have lost 24 of 26 international games against Australia in Australia. But despite all the challenges and abysmal numbers, T20s are the best chance for Pakistan to claim a win.

While Warner was unstoppable against Sri Lanka but Babar is confident his side’s game plan can halt the rampant Australian.

Warner was brilliant in Australia’s 3-0 clean sweep of Sri Lanka, posting unbeaten scores of 100, 60 and 57 but now faces a much sterner test against the No.1 T20 side in the world, who are well prepared for the left-hander.

“We’ve got a plan ready for David Warner,” Babar said with the aid of an interpreter during the pre-series media conference on Saturday. “He’s one of Australia’s really good batsmen. We have our frontline bowlers and we have a strategy ready for him. Obviously, once he gets going, he gets going but we have a strategy in place for all facets.”

Australia T20 captain Aaron Finch had no doubt Warner would be picked and perform in the limited-overs outfit.

“There was definitely no issue for me, he’s the first picked in any T20 side,” Finch said on Saturday. “You look at the way that when he gets runs, he wins games for his team — whether it’s Australia, Hyderabad [in the IPL], wherever he plays, when he performs the teams win and that’s such a huge asset.

“His World Cup was outstanding, his one-day cricket for a lot of years has been extraordinary so there was definitely no reservations going into this series or the summer altogether.”

While Warner hammered a Sri Lanka attack that captured just six wickets in the three-match series, he will now come up against the threatening left-arm Pakistan pace trio of Amir, Mohammad Irfan and Wahab Riaz.

Amir, who announced his retirement from Test cricket in July, has taken Warner’s wicket twice in five T20 Internationals and complements the rapid pace of veteran Wahab and the towering 216cm tall Irfan.

In addition to the pace threat, Pakistan also boast two of the top four ranked T20 bowlers in left-arm spinner Imad Wasim and leg-spinner Shadab Khan.

Finch is wary of Pakistan’s all-round attack which is set to put his batting unit under immense pressure.

“They’ve got such a well-rounded attack,” Finch said. “You’ve obviously got the height, bounce and pace of Irfan. Then you’ve got Amir who is fast and can swing it. Very skillful.

“Then you have Wahab Riaz with all out pace, who can spray them around at times but when he gets his line and length right, he’s lethal.

“It’s an attack that you don’t get any respite. But they are going to give you scoring opportunities and you’re going to chase them.

“It’s a T20 game at the end of the day. It’s about those first six overs being really important to setting up the game.”

Teams (from):

AUSTRALIA: Aaron Finch (captain), David Warner, Steve Smith, Ben McDermott, Ashton Turner, Alex Carey, Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Kane Richardson, Billy Stanlake, Adam Zampa, Sean Abbott.

PAKISTAN: Babar Azam (captain), Fakhar Zaman, Haris Sohail, Asif Ali, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Rizwan, Imad Wasim, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Irfan, Musa Khan, Shadab Khan, Usman Qadir, Imam-ul-Haq.

Umpires: Gerard Abood (Australia) and Shawn Craig (Australia).

TV umpire: Paul Wilson (Australia).

Match referee: Javagal Srinath (India).

Published in Dawn, November 3rd, 2019