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Thursday March 28, 2024

Pakistan hope to conquer Proteas on home soil

By Our Correspondent
January 26, 2021

KARACHI: Pakistan are out of the race for the inaugural World Test Championship final but that doesn’t diminish the importance of the two-Test series against South Africa which gets underway here at the National Stadium from Tuesday (today) — at least not for the host team.

Eyeing redemption after an embarrassing drubbing at the hands of New Zealand in their last series, the Pakistanis will be hoping tame the Proteas on home soil. And the opening Test in Karachi will be a perfect opportunity for them and Babar Azam, who will finally make his debut as Pakistan’s Test captain after missing the series in New Zealand because of injury, to end their slump in red-ball format.

The home series, to be played behind closed doors because of the Covid-19 pandemic, will be of utmost importance for the duo of head coach Misbah-ul-Haq and bowling coach Waqar Younis as it is an open secret that if things go wrong this will most likely be their last assignment with the national team.

Under Misbah, who was entrusted with the dual responsibility of head coach and chief selector by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), it has mostly been downhill for the national team. Misbah was sacked as chief selector and could lose his other job as well if the Pakistanis failed to do well against the Proteas in the brief Test series.

Pakistan have already pressed the panic button as new chief selector Mohammad Wasim named several new faces in the squad for the Test series. Two of them – opener Imran Butt and left-arm spinner Nauman Ali – are expected to make their Test debuts today.

It is expected that Pakistan will prepare a low, slow and spinner-friendly wicket in a bid to exploit South Africa’s weakness against quality spin. That’s why Babar is likely to go into the series opener with two spinners – Yasir Shah and Nauman.

In the batting department, Babar will be holding the key with players like the seasoned Azhar Ali looking to make their presence felt in what is a rare home Test for the Pakistanis.

South Africa, meanwhile, will be hoping that their own left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj steps up and exploit the potentially spin-friendly and turning wicket at the National Stadium. Confined to a bio-secure bubble because of the covid-19 pandemic since their arrival here, the touring party’s pre-series preparations have been far from ideal.

Just like Pakistan, the South Africans haven’t been at their best in recent times barring a series-winning triumph against Sri Lanka. England’s 2-0 series victory in Sri Lanka on Monday ended Proteas’ hopes of reaching the WTC final.

However, under young captain Quinton de Kock, the tourists will go all out to counter Pakistan and draw first blood in the series. De Kock would be depending on the pace duo of Kagiso Rabada returning and Anrich Nortje and the batting prowess of Faf du Plessis, Aiden Markram and Dean Elgar.

Likely teams:

Pakistan: Abid Ali, Imran Butt, Azhar Ali, Babar Azam (captain), Fawad Alam, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Nauman Ali, Yasir Shah, Shaheen Afridi.

South Africa: Aiden Markram, Dean Elgar, Rassie van der Dussen, Faf du Plessis, Quinton de Kock (captain, wk), Temba Bavuma, Wiaan Mulder, Keshav Maharaj, Anrich Nortje, Kagiso Rabada, Lutho Sipamla.