Pakistan vs Australia, 5th ODI: Match Preview

DUBAI: The fifth and final One-day International of the five-match series between Pakistan and Australia is being played at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday (March 31).

Australia have already won the series with four consecutive wins and now they are looking to make a clean sweep, their first 5-0 ODI series win since 2013 when they hosted West Indies.

On the other hand, Pakistan will desperately make an  attempt to avoid a whitewash after they came closest to win the previous match, played at the same venue on Friday. Chasing a difficult total of 278, they fell just seven runs short of the target after scoring 271 for eight with two individual hundreds.

The victory in the final match will not only be a consolation win for Pakistan but it may boost the morale of their players who will have to play a five-match ODI series along with a solitary Twenty-20 International against England in England in May before the commencement of the 12th ICC World Cup.

Pakistan are playing the series against Australia without the services of their six key players, now seven after Faheem Ashraf has also been added, as they all are being rested for the World Cup.

Another purpose of resting these players was to give confidence to other players and also to test the potential of new players. It may be said that the coach and selectors achieved some success but not up to full extent.

This policy provided ODI debut to four young players – openers Shan Masood and Abid Ali, left-handed top-order batsman Saad Ali, and 18-year-old fast bowler Mohammad Hasnain. Wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Rizwan also got an opportunity to play the series in the absence of captain Sarfraz Ahmed.

Only two of them achieved success to the full extent as Rizwan struck two centuries in four matches while Abid Ali, given the chance late in the fourth match only due to a sudden illness of opener Imam-ul-Haq, scored a brilliant hundred.

Hasnain also bowled well in all his three matches but claimed only two wickets while Saad Ali, who was given the chance only in the fourth match, was sent late in batting order and could score just seven runs.

If these players continue good performance today they will definitely be strong candidates for getting berth in the World Cup squad.

Squads

Pakistan: Shan Masood, Imam-ul-Haq, Abid Ali, Umar Akmal, Haris Sohail, Mohammad Rizwan, Saad Ali, Shoaib Malik (captain), Imad Wasim, Mohammad Amir, Yasir Shah, Junaid Khan, Usman Shinwari, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Hasnain.

Australia: Aaron Finch (captain), Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Alex Carey, Peter Handscomb, Pat Cummins, Kane Richardson, Jason Behrendorff, Nathan Lyon, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Jhye Richardson, Adam Zampa, Ashton Turner.