Pakistan players were all over the place against five-time ODI World Champions Australia in the warm-up game on October 3. Their fielding was below par and a few of their key bowlers were taken to the cleaners at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad. To everyone’s surprise, Haris Rauf went for plenty with the new and the old ball.
Once again, Pakistan new ball bowlers struggled to take a wicket. Shaheen Afridi and Hasan Ali were wicketless in the first powerplay overs. Of late when Pakistan fail to take wickets with the new ball, they tend to leak runs a lot in the middle and slog overs. However, leg-spinner Usama Mir was the big positive as he not only broke the opening partnership but got the wickets of both David Warner and Mitchell Marsh in consecutive overs.
Earlier, Rauf got off to a poor start. He conceded 28 runs from two overs against Australian openers. He was taken off the attack by stand-in captain Shadab Khan.
In his second spell, Rauf managed to get Steve Smith's wicket with a beauty of a delivery going away from him. Smith played across the line and edged it to wicketkeeper Mohammad Haris. However, he did not get much support from fielders.
He was brought back into the attack in the slog overs. With the old ball, he lacked variations. Often he pitched it up and whacked for boundaries. When Josh Inglis took him on, he increased the pace and it led to more agony. When he shortened the length, Inglis and Cameron Green used his pace to play scoop shots. He did not have an answer to the onslaught and went for plenty in the slog overs. In Indian conditions where he is bound to lose his lethal pace towards the end of the game, the need for employing more variations is necessary for him.
The 29-year-old would have conceded more than 100 runs had he bowled his full quota of 10 overs. Pakistan leaked 103 runs from the last 10 overs with Afridi held back and other bowlers being tested against the rampant Aussie strikers.
In addition to Rauf, Shadab and Wasim Jr were unimpressive as well. Shadab started off well but leaked too many boundaries later on. Glenn Maxwell was brutal in the middle overs whacking as many as six sixes. Wasim Jr. was slightly better but off-target nevertheless as he conceded 63 runs from eight overs at nearly eight runs per over. As a result, Australia posted 351/7. It was a similar story in the first warm-up game against New Zealand where they could not defend a target of 346.
It will be interesting to see whether Ali or Wasim Jr. gets a place in the playing XI when Babar Azam-led Pakistan take on minnows Netherlands in their campaign opener at the same venue on October 6.
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