SYDNEY, 1 January 2005 — Australia are not expected to show any charity in the season of goodwill when they tackle Pakistan in the third and final Test starting at the Sydney Cricket Ground today.
The world champions have already won the series after two crushing wins in Perth and Melbourne and their New Year’s resolution is always to continue their ruthless spree.
Pakistan haven’t beaten the Australians in a Test for a decade and the odds are heavily stacked against them breaking their drought in Sydney. Winning in Australia is always a formidable task but the tourists have been crippled by a mounting injury toll. Paceman Mohammad Sami and all-rounder Shoaib Malik have already been ruled out of the final Test with injury while captain Inzamam ul-Haq and Abdul Razzaq remain in doubt.
Inzamam missed the second Test with a back injury while Razzaq was twice admitted to hospital after suffering from a mystery illness.
Worse still for Pakistan has been the form of their fit players. They lost the opening Test by 491 runs after being skittled for just 72 in their second innings and then collapsed to a nine-wicket defeat in Melbourne.
Despite the lopsided results, Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer said he was at least encouraged by the improvement in game two.
“I take a lot of positives out of the Melbourne game,” Woolmer told reporters.
“It was a tremendously better result in terms of our cricket than in Perth and if we can maintain this upward curve we can learn to play against teams like Australia.”
The home side are brimming with confidence, so much so that the selectors were able to release express bowler Brett Lee to play in domestic cricket because the pace trio of Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie and Michael Kasprowicz have performed so well.
They also added Stuart MacGill and Shane Watson to their squad, giving them the option of playing an extra spinner on an SCG pitch that traditionally favors slow bowlers.
The only player under any pressure in Australia’s team is middle-order batsmen Darren Lehmann whose position is under threat after scores of 12, 5 and 11 in the previous two Tests.
