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Australia’s faltering batsmen are under pressure to live up to their superstar billing in a make-or-break second T20 against Pakistan.
Pakistan can wrap up the series with victory in Friday night’s clash in Dubai after smashing Australia by 66 runs in the series-opener.
Set a gettable target of 156 in Abu Dhabi, the tourists lost six wickets in the powerplay on the way to being skittled for 89.
Top-order big guns Aaron Finch, D’Arcy Short, Chris Lynn and Glenn Maxwell barely fired a shot despite boasting stunning records in T20 cricket.
While Finch described the collapse as “horrific”, vice-captain and wicketkeeper Alex Carey said he was confident it would be a one-off.
“With the players we’ve got in the T20 side, it’s obviously a really exciting team on paper,” Carey told AAP.
“We’ve seen what our batters can do up the top of the order, especially at home in the Big Bash. With those type of players we’ve got in the side, we don’t expect that to happen again.
“We put the trust in the players. Obviously T20 cricket can happen quite fast. We trust every player that plays in this side to badess the situation.”
Australia appeared to be leaning towards an unchanged XI after training at Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Thursday night.
Test squad members Mitch Marsh, Nathan Lyon and Peter Siddle were all overlooked for the series-opener, along with Mitchell Starc who is nursing a tight hamstring and almost certain to miss the remainder of the series.
All-rounder Marsh had loomed as the most likely inclusion but Australia’s bowlers did hold up their end by restricting Pakistan to 8-155.
Further, the tourists may be keen to back in highly-rated youngster Ben McDermott at No.5 after he ran himself out for a duck in Abu Dhabi.
World No.1-ranked Pakistan are remarkably on the verge of claiming their the 10th straight T20 series victory, with Sarfraz Ahmed enjoying a perfect run since replacing Shahid Afridi as skipper in 2016.
Australia’s form across T20s and ODIs has been comparatively patchy which is something Carey, who played in the ODI whitewash defeat to England earlier this year, is keen to rectify ahead of next year’s World Cup.
“It’s no secret that our performance over the last 12 months in white-ball cricket isn’t at the level we want it to be,” Carey said.
“I think we’ve got a T20 squad that can be quite similar to the one-day squad. We’ve got world-clbad bowlers, world-clbad batters.
“You see with England’s side, they’re really settled. But they’re settled because they’re all performing. It’s now time for our T20 squad, our one-day squad to bridge the gap between who comes in and out and try to get a settled list heading into the World Cup.”
Qantas T20 Tour of the UAE
Australia squad: Aaron Finch (c), Mitch Marsh (vc), Alex Carey (vc), Ashton Agar, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Chris Lynn, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Ben McDermott, D’Arcy Short, Peter Siddle, Billy Stanlake, Mitch Starc, Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa.
Pakistan squad: Sarfraz Ahmed (c), Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez, Sahibzada Farhan, Babar Azam, Shoaib Malik, Asif Ali, Hussain Talat, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Usman Khan Shinwari, Hbadan Ali, Imad Wasim, Waqas Maqsood, Faheem Ashraf
Oct 22: Australia beat UAE by seven wickets
Oct 24: Pakistan beat Australia by 66 runs
Oct 26: Second T20, Dubai
Oct 28: Third T20, Dubai
*All matches against Pakistan start at 8pm local time, 3am the following day AEDT
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