KARACHI: According to Pakistan’s coach, Intikhab Alam, batting-friendly tracks in Dubai and Abu Dhabi may boost his team’s chances in the eagerly-awaited one-day series against world champions Australia later this season.
Pakistan’s captain Younis Khan has recently warned fans against having high expectations from their team in the April 22-May 7 series. He is of the view that Australia will find the going tough in the hot UAE weather, where the playing conditions will be more similar to the sub-continent than the rest of the world. “There is no doubt that Australia is a very strong side,” he told ‘Arab News’ in an interview. “They have proved it by comprehensively beating South Africa in their Test series recently,” referring to Australia’s back-to-back wins in the first two Tests against the Proteas in the ongoing three-match series.
The Aussies were thrashed at home by the South Africans earlier this year and Intikhab pointed out that teams are generally hard to beat when they are on a rebound.
But the former Pakistan captain was quick to add that Australia will find the conditions in Dubai and Abu Dhabi completely different from what they’ve been used to, having played most of their cricket either at home or South Africa in the last few months.
“The wickets in Dubai and Abu Dhabi are likely to be slow and batting-friendly,” said Intikhab, who scored 1493 runs and took 125 wickets from 47 Tests during 1959-77.
“The Australians will need some time to come to terms with the low and slow pitches after having played a lot on bouncy tracks. It is an importang factor which should benefit us,” he stressed.
Pakistan will ‘host’ Australia for five one-day Internationals and twenty20 game in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. It was previously agreed by the two countries to play the series in Pakistan but the Aussies refused due to security reasons. Pakistan have decided to camp in Dubai around ten days before the start of the series in a bid to completely adapt themselves with the conditions there. Intikhab, 67, said that the series against Australia is a ‘huge challenge’ for his charges who have mostly played against lower-ranked teams in the last 15 months.
“We have played and won against less strong teams like Bangladesh and Zimbabwe and now its time to rise to what is a huge challenge for our young team,” he added.
“Australia are still among the world’s best side and our players will have to really lift their game to a higer level to be able to beat them.”
Intikhab said that his boys are looking forward to the series. “The good thing is that the players are itching to take the field (against Australia) and I’m confident that they will give out their best.”
While Intikhab sounded upbeat, Younis has been trying to lower expectations by saying that he will not be going into the series against Australia with any high hopes. In a recent interview, Younis stressed that fans should not expect great results from his young side too soon, adding that he would be happy even if his boys are able to give a positive showing against Rickey Ponting’s men.
“Our target is to give our best against Australia,” said Younis, who replaced Shoaib Malik as Pakistan’s captain after a one-day series defeat against Sri Lanka at home in January this year.
