Less than 24 hours after beating Zimbabwe by 74 runs, Pakistan will take the field once again at the Harare Sports Club when they lock horns with Australia in the second clash of the T20I tri-series.
The match will see the No1 and No3 ranked T20I teams go head-to-head in what is descending into a four-way battle for the top billing.
SARFRAZ’S PAKISTAN ON A ROLL
The 74-run win on Sunday was the 12th win in their last 13 matches for Pakistan who have been the kings of the format for the past year or so. Sarfraz Ahmed’s men have now won eight T20 matches on the bounce, a first in Pakistan’s history.
The men in green have now won 20 of the 23 matches they have played under Sarfraz’s captaincy and bear the look of a well-oiled machine capable of overturning any opposition in front of them.
Their bowling attack has been especially, has been on song and will be tough proposition for Australia to navigate on Monday.
Pakistan are turning into T20 behemoths.
AUSTRALIA SEARCH FOR FIRST WIN IN LANGER’S TENURE
Justin Langer’s tenure as the coach of Australia could not have got off to a more horrific start after his men were resoundingly beaten in each of the five ODIs and sole T20 they played against England.
Attempting to usher in a new era for Australian cricket after the fallout of the ball-tampering saga has not been easy so far for Langer and his men and they will hope that a change of surroundings in Zimbabwe can bring about a drastic change in their fortunes.
Australia were abysmal in their tour of England.
LIKELY XIs
Pakistan: Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez, Hussain Talat, Sarfraz Ahmed (c and wk), Asif Ali, Shoaib Malik, Faheem Ashraf, Shadab Khan, Usman Khan, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Nawaz.
Australia: D’Arcy Short, Aaron Finch (c), Glenn Maxwell, Travis Head, Alex Carey (wk), Marcus Stoinis, Ashton Agar, Andrew Tye, Kane Richardson, Mitchell Swepson, Billy Stanlake.
