As confirmed from the toss, Pakistan are unchanged, with Josh Hazlewood the man to come in for Sean Abbott for Australia. There’s a big challenge ahead for the Australian openers of Matt Short and Jake Fraser-McGurk on this deck, with both men looking to improve after scoring just 1 and 16 runs respectively in the first game of the series in Melbourne. Australia : 1 Matt Short, 2 Jake Fraser-McGurk, 3 Steven Smith, 4 Josh Inglis (wk), 5 Marnus Labuschagne, 6 Glenn Maxwell, 7 Aaron Hardie, 8 Pat Cummins (capt), 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Adam Zampa, 11 Josh Hazlewood Pakistan : 1 Saim Ayub, 2 Abdullah Shafique, 3 Babar Azam, 4 Mohammad Rizwan (capt/wk), 5 Kamran Ghulam, 6 Salman Agha, 7 Irfan Khan, 8 Shaheen Shah Afridi, 9 Naseem Shah, 10 Haris Rauf, 11 Mohammad Hasnain Mohammad Rizwan, the Pakistan captain has opted to bowl and confirmed that there are no team changes.
Pat Cummins says that he would have done the same thing and he has confirmed that Sean Abbott drops out with Josh Hazlewood back in. There’s a bit grass on the pitch, so will could make a good day for the quicks. A really interesting opinion here from Greg Chappell who reflects on the futures of three cricketing giants: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Steve Smith and whether they can survive in a game that is increasingly no country for old(er) men ahead of the anticipated Test series between Australia and India.
Read the piece here Steve Smith, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma Credit: AP Hello, it’s Jonathan Drennan th.
