TOPIC:

Anyone want to hazard a guess at the Australian team for the 1st Test in Rawalpindi starting on Friday.
Having seen a pic of the pitch it looks like a dry flat road, no grass whatsoever.
I daresay it might break up late in the piece and possibly worth taking 2 spinners in?

A possible line up leaving Starc out who I dont think will be suited to this type of wicket, Boland & Hazlewood is a toss up although Hazlewood has had no red ball cricket for 3 months or so, whilst Agar & Swepson is also a toss up but thinking Agar's experience might give him the nod.

Warner
Khawaja
Labuschagne
Smith
Head
Green
Carey (wk)
Agar
Cummins
Boland
Lyon

Hazlewood (12th man)


 

Looks like a good team for the expected conditions BH. I would still be tempted to play Hazlewood ahead of Boland or Agar because of his record of success over a long period on a variety of wickets. If the pitch is flat though, they are going to need an attack that can get through 120 overs so it may be that Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne may have to contribute some overs as well. Cam Green will also be able to bowl more overs so Cummins will be able to swing his bowlers around a bit. The batting pretty much picks itself, I note that Pakistan have a few problems with their pace attack including Haris Rauf who was lined up to make his test debut before getting COVID. This will be a very interesting series and as always it will come down to whether the Aussie batsmen are able to handle spin on sub continental wickets. They have failed miserably on previous tours of India particularly.

we'll have to go in with two spinners - the ball will be buggered after 20 odd overs and the second spinner would be nice of it was going the other way instead of Lyon only offspin
Pakistan will go in with multiple spinners I'd bet 
Key could be reverse swing too but we'll have to bat well for sure

I cannot believe they went in with only 1 specialist spinner (Pakistan are playing 3).
0/80 odd is the result just before lunch Day 1.
Langer's experience in these conditions having scored a century on the last Test tour there in 1998 might have been handy after all.....I am not sure what Ronald McDonald's credentials in Pakistan are?! 

Pakistan are off to a good start( 1-155)..
Got a feeling it's going to be a long tour for Australia..Already team selection problems.And the players are in control..So not sure how this will work.

paying a hefty price for not including another spinner already - Lyon just isn't enough I'd have gone with Agar because he's more than a handy bat
Not even a shred of imagination to be seen

Turned into a yawn fest, must be an absolute plonker of a wicket. Even the Paki's 3 world class spinners couldn't do much damage with Australia's reply of 2/271 before rain ended play. That's not a great wicket, it's a boring batters practice wicket with no hope of a result. We want 5 days of bat v ball with innings in the 300-350 range with the result on the afternoon of the 5th day, not this soul destroying run fest that does nothing to promote the virtues of test cricket. Whoever prepared that pitch should be sacked.
 

nearly 900 runs and 8 wickets coming up to the end of the 4th day - at least the bats didn't fold up
 

Can anyone help me out, I reckon Lyon has a real poor record on the sub continent? Why is he our spinner there?

Sure he is good in Australia where he gets overspin and bounce, but his second innings record around the world when the pitch slows down and looses its bounce is poor.
 

concedes a hell of a lot of runs too but the selectors must see different I guess - part time spinners aren't going to win all that many matches either so it'll be interesting to see how they pick the next side