Pakistan seek turnaround in second ODI

LAHORE: Pakistan are in a must-win situation as they take on Australia in their second One-day International of the three-match series here at the Gaddafi Stadium on Thursday.

Australia defeated the hosts in the first match by 88 runs win. Pakistan will be seeking a strong comeback to stay alive in the series.

The Babar Azam-led team was totally out of sorts in the opening game which it played without key players Shaheen Afridi and Shadab Khan.

Other than opener Imam-ul-Haq and Babar, who scored a century and a half century, respectively, the batters failed to develop big partnerships.

Babar will expect Shaheen, who is expected to be back in the playing XI, Hassan Ali, and Haris Rauf to bowl better lines and lengths.

Australia will seek to continue their momentum from the first game in which Travis Head, Adam Zampa and Cameron Green shined for them. While Travis struck a century and took two wickets, Zampa grabbed four wickets and Cameron played a brisk cameo towards the end of their innings. Ben Mcdermott was another performer with the bat as the 27-year-old scored 55 off 70 balls.

The pitch of the Gaddafi Stadium has always been batting friendly and the first match made it clear that a lot of runs would be coming off this track. However, spinners are getting help in the middle overs.

The weather remains hot and dry in Lahore where all three ODIs and the lone T20 International are to be played.

It had seemed that the series would have to be called off because of Covid cases in the Australian camp, but all members of the travelling party tested negative on Wednesday.

Pakistan: Babar Azam (C), Imam-ul-Haq, Shadab Khan, Khushdil Shah, Abdullah Shafique, Mohammad Nawaz, Asif Ali, Mohammad Rizwan (WK), Mohd Wasim Jr, Haider Ali, Saud Sakeel, Haris Rauf, Shaheen Afridi, Hasan Ali, Shhnawaz Dahani, Iftikhar Ahmed, Usman Qadir.

Australia: Aaron Finch (C), Sean Abbott, Adam Zampa, Ashton Agar, Ben McDermott, Jason Behrendorff, Marcus Stoinis, Alex Carey (WK), Mithcell Swepson, Ben Dwarshuis, Marnus Labuschangne, Nathan Elis, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Englis (WK).