After suffering from two humiliating defeats of eight wickets each at Sharjah, Pakistan are looking to halt the win spree of Australia when both will meet in the third One-day International at Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.
If Australia win the third ODI, they will also secure the series with two games remaining.
They have clashed in 100 ODIs so far as Australia have been superiors with 64 wins against Pakistan’s 32 whereas one match was tied and three gave no result.
Under inspiring captaincy of Aaron Finch, who led his team from the front as his two back-to-back centuries guided Australia to two successive victories, and they proved their supremacy over the inexperienced Pakistan team, playing without its six senior players including regular captain Sarfraz Ahmed.
Though Pakistani batsmen displayed good batting performances, scoring 280 and 284 on a slow pitch, with Haris Sohail and Mohammad Rizwan made individual hundreds but they went in vain as Australia successfully chased the daunting targets, losing only two wickets on each occasion.
Pakistani bowlers, who always give better performance than the batsmen, failed to stop Australians batting invasion on both times.
Veteran cricketer Shoaib Malik, tried to boost his young players with his batting experience and leadership skills but could not get better results. He has a rich experience of playing 281 ODIs, scored 7,450 runs with nine centuries and 44 half-centuries. He has also taken 156 wickets as an off-break bowler and held 96 catches as a fielder.
Shoaib has so far captained Pakistan in 40 One-day Internationals, winning 25 and losing 15 with an impressive success percentage of 62.50.
However, Pakistan’s head coach Mickey Arthur has also promised his team will give their best to bounce back in the third match. After giving ODI debuts to opening batsman Shan Masood, and fast bowlers Mohammad Abbas and Mohammad Hasnain at Sharjah, he confirmed there will be no debut on Wednesday. It means opener Abid Ali and middle-order batsman Saad Ali will have to wait.
There will be two changes in Pakistan side on Wednesday as fast bowler Usman Shinwari will replace Faheem Ashraf, who will be rested from the remaining three matches, while another fast bowler Junaid Khan will come in place of Mohammad Abbas.
Teams
Pakistan XI: Shan Masood, Imam-ul-Haq, Haris Sohail, Umar Akmal, Shoaib Malik (captain), Mohammad Rizwan, Imad Wasim, Yasir Shah, Usman Shinwari, Junaid Khan, Mohammad Hasnain.
Australia: Aaron Finch (captain), Usman Khawaja, Glenn Maxwell, Shaun Marsh, Marcus Stoinis, Peter Handscomb, Alex Carey (wk), Nathan Coulter-Nile, Jhye Richardson, Nathan Lyon, Adam Zampa, Pat Cummins, Jason Behrendorff, Kane Richardson, Ashton Turner
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