PAK vs AUS: Pakistan To Play Two-Day Practice Match Before 2nd Test vs Australia

Pakistan National Cricket Team are all set to lock horns with Victoria XI in a two-day practice match ahead of the second Test of the three-match series against Australia National Cricket Team. The Shan Masood-led Pakistan are scheduled to play the second Test against the Aussies at the Melbourne Cricket Ground from December 26.

The match of Pakistan against the Victoria XI is set to be held at the Junction Oval in Melbourne on December 22 and 23. This is not the first practice match of the Men In Green as they had also participated in one tour game against Prime Minister’s XI at the Manuka Oval, Canberra ahead of the series-opening clash.

The practice match will provide much-needed help to the Pakistan National Cricket Team, who faced an absolute hammering at the hands of the Australia National Cricket Team in the first Test at the Perth Stadium.

Pakistan were outperformed in all three departments of the game and faced a humiliating loss of 360 runs to continue their losing streak on Australian soil in the purest format of the game.

The Shan Masood-led side were given a target of 450 runs to chase in the Perth Test. They displayed an extremely poor performance and were bundled out for 89 runs in 30.2 overs with Saud Shakeel being the top performer with 24 runs off 51 balls under his belt.

This defeat would surely have damaged the confidence of the visitors and they would be looking to bounce back strong.

We wanted to have more practice – Pakistan head coach Mohammad Hafeez

Speaking after the loss in the first Test, Pakistan head coach Mohammad Hafeez revealed that originally the the two-day practice match against Peter Handscomb-led Victoria XI wasn’t part of their schedule but they requested Cricket Australia for a match because they needed more practice.

“That [the Victoria tour game] was something extra we added into the schedule because it wasn’t there earlier,” Pakistan head coach Mohammad Hafeez said after the Test, as quoted by ESPNCricinfo.

“We wanted to have more practice rather than only one practice game. That had first-class status, so we couldn’t give all the bowlers the chance to have a feel. That’s the reason we wanted to have this practice game, so more guys could get a feel of a match scenario; we felt that would work well. We will definitely plan accordingly. All the players should use those two days to make themselves more familiar with the situations and the conditions.”

Mohammad Hafeez had earlier slammed Cricket Australia for not providing them with a good and typical Australian track for the practice match against Prime Minister’s XI at the Manuka Oval, Canberra.

However, he is optimistic about getting a better pitch this time around which will be very similar to the pitch that will be used for the game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

“The conditions we get fall under Cricket Australia’s domain,” he said. “We have requested similar conditions to the Test match so that our players can take advantage of these conditions.

“This game was not part of the tour but I wanted our players to have match-scenario style practice. We’re grateful to CA for accepting our request and providing this facility. We will try to learn from this in the most effective possible way.”