Pakistan, Australia Seek Revival in UAE

Sharjah: Pakistan and Australia will seek to reverse their recent poor fortunes amidst oppressive heat and unusual timings in their limited over series which starts on Tuesday.

Pakistan, who have not beaten Australia in a one-day series since 2002, have lost 4-1 to England and 3-1 in Sri Lanka, slipping to sixth in the one-day rankings.

Australia, who slid to fourth from number one for the first time in three years after a humiliating 4-0 defeat in England last month, not only face an opponent laced with quality spinners but also with high temperatures.

Pakistan, who are playing their home series on neutral venues because of security fears in their country, was forced to host the series in the extreme hot conditions in United Arab Emirates after Sri Lanka backed out as alternate.

Pakistan also considered Malaysia as the option but threats of rains ruled out that option too, forcing them to start the one-day matches at 6pm in the evening and finish them at 1:45 am the next day.

Australia had the taste of conditions and timings in their 66-run win over Afghanistan here on Saturday.

But Pakistan's vice-captain Mohammad Hafeez believed both teams will have to cope with the conditions.

The three one-day matches will be followed by as many Twenty20 internationals.

Pakistan will rely heavily on their spinning trio of Saeed Ajmal, Hafeez and Shahid Afridi, more so because they left out frontline paceman Umar Gul for the one-dayers.

Pakistan also left out experienced Younis Khan but included wicket-keeper batsman Kamran Akmal to supplement the fragile batting.

Australian captain Michael Clarke sought consistency in his team's performance.

Clarke said it will be a hard fought series, with Pakistani spinners holding the center stage.

Australia have left-arm spinner Xavier Doherty in their squad to add to leg-spin of Steve Smith, and off-spinners Glenn Maxwell and David Hussey and part-timers in Clarke.

The allrounder Daniel Christian will take his place, meaning plenty of seam-bowling options for Michael Clarke, while the spin duties will be shared by Glenn Maxwell, David Hussey and Clarke himself. It remains to be seen whether Matthew Wade will open or be moved down the order to give him some respite from the heat.

Teams from

Pakistan Misbah-ul-Haq (captain), Abdur Rehman, Aizaz Cheema, Anwar Ali, Umar Akmal, Asad Shafiq, Azhar Ali, Imran Farhat, Junaid Khan, Kamran Akmal (wk), Mohammad Hafeez, Nasir Jamshed, Saeed Ajmal, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Sohail Tanvir

Australia MJ Clarke (captain), MS Wade (wk), DA Warner, GJ Bailey, DT Christian, XJ Doherty, CJ Ferguson, DJ Hussey, MEK Hussey, MG Johnson, AC McDermott, GJ Maxwell, JL Pattinson, SPD Smith, MA Starc

Pitch and conditions
The humid conditions allowed Australia's fast bowlers to extract plenty of swing at the same venue against Afghanistan, but Pakistan's spinners should also find the conditions to their liking. The temperature, even late at night, is not expected to fall below 33C.

Stats and trivia

• Shahid Afridi needs three more wickets to reach 350 in one-day internationals; now that Brett Lee has retired, Afridi is the leading wicket taker among current ODI cricketers
• The last one-day international Australia played against Pakistan in the UAE was just over three years ago, yet only one member of that Australia side - Michael Clarke - will take the field in this game
• Should Australia lose the series 2-1 they won't move on the ICC one-day rankings, but if they lose 3-0 they will drop from fourth to sixth, swapping places with Pakistan

Match facts
August 28-29, 2012 (day/night)
Start time 1800 local (1400 GMT)