Tim Paine's side look to bounce back from the drawn Ashes as they open their home Test summer against a new-look Pakistan side, and The Cricketer has all the details
Pakistan are set to become the ninth and final side to make their World Test Championship this week as they head to Australia for a two-match series. Tim Paine's side will be keen to make a strong start to the home summer after bringing the Ashes urn home from England in September after a 2-2 drawn series, while the visitors begin a new era 10 months after their last Test with a new captain and coach being overshadowed by a teenage seam sensation set to debut in Brisbane.
FIRST MATCH: The Gabba, Brisbane (Thursday, November 21 to Monday, November 25, 10am local time, 12am GMT)
SECOND MATCH: Adelaide Oval, Adelaide (Friday, November 29 to Tuesday, December 3, 2pm local time, 3:30am GMT)
Australia are bound to feel incredibly confident heading into their home summer, despite only coming away from the Ashes tour of England with a 2-2 draw. Most notably, this series will mark the home returns of Steve Smith and David Warner to the Test setup after serving their one-year bans for involvement in the ball tampering scandal of 2018.
The pair had contrasting returns from their Ashes efforts – while Smith tallied a superhuman 774 runs in just three-and-a-half games, Stuart Broad emerged as Warner's kryptonite, claiming his wicket seven times as he averaged single figures across the five Tests. Cape Town comrade Cameron Bancroft too had a tour to forget, dropped for Marcus Harris two games in after being given a surprise run alongside Warner on his Durham form, but coach Justin Langer is known to be a fan of the 27-year-old and his character. Unlike Harris, he retains his place in the squad.
Few players furthered their cases for selection during last week's three-day Australia A fixture against the tourists in Perth, headlined by Bancroft's last-wicket partnership of 65 alongside seamer Riley Meredith more than doubling their side's total to 122 after Imran Khan ran amok through the middle order.
Joe Burns returns to the Australian side despite being bowled first ball by Imran Khan while playing for Australia A last week
However, Mitchell Starc and uncapped Queensland seamer Michael Neser have both made a strong impression through the first four rounds of Sheffield Shield competition with 17 and 15 wickets respectively, and their hopes of playing have been boosted by the news that injury-prone quick James Pattinson has been suspended by the board from participating in the first Test after allegedly making a homophobic slur in the direction of Neser's teammate and USA international Cameron Gannon, who leads all bowlers with 19 scalps so far.
Conditions should suit the hosts in both matches, with their last Test defeat at The Gabba being to Viv Richards' West Indies in 1988, and five floodlit matches with the pink Kookaburra all returning victories, including one over Pakistan in 2016. With the two-match series offering up a maximum of 120 points in the World Test Championship, Tim Paine's XI will surely fancy their chances of leapfrogging New Zealand and Sri Lanka to close the gap to runaway leaders India.
Langer's squad is largely unchanged from that which travelled to England, with veteran seamer Peter Siddle dropped despite leading the bowling averages for Victoria this season. His state teammate Marcus Harris also misses out after making just 16 and 20 for Australia A last week, with Joe Burns returning after being controversially omitted from the Ashes touring party.
There is no room for either Marsh brother, with allrounder Mitchell currently recovering breaking his hand by punching a wall and elder sibling Shaun overlooked despite claiming a career-best 214 against Victoria last month. Veteran batsman Usman Khawaja also misses out after being pushed out of the first-choice XI after the loss at Headingley by the return of Steve Smith from a concussion-enforced rest and the impressive form of Queensland teammate Marnus Labuschagne.
James Pattinson's suspension for an alleged on-pitch homophobic slur has opened the door for Mitchell Starc to line up in a demon pace attack alongside Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood at The Gabba. Michael Neser, who is yet to receive a Test cap despite boasting 110 wickets at an average of 24.00 since becoming a regular fixture in the Queensland side in 2017, again sits in reserve.
Despite strong domestic performances, Victoria batsmen Nic Maddinson, Will Pucovski and Glenn Maxwell will not play a part in this series, having requested time away from the game and the international setup in order to help manage their mental health.
Squad: Tim Paine (c/wk), Cameron Bancroft, Joe Burns, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Matthew Wade, David Warner
David Warner rebounded from a miserable Ashes series with his maiden international T20 century against Sri Lanka last month
With preparation for this summer's World Cup dominating their schedule, it is now over 10 months since Pakistan last took to the field in Test whites, and even that was simply to wrap up a winless three-match series in South Africa. As such, and as tends to be the way with Pakistan, there are plenty of new faces coming into the red-ball setup to be tested against a brash Australian outfit.
It is all change up top, with Mickey Arthur and the majority of his staff (including batting coach Grant Flower and bowling coach Azhar Mahmood) ousted after an inconsistent side failed to progress to the knockout stages of the World Cup. Into Arthur's shoes on a three-year contract comes former captain Misbah-ul-Haq, who is named both head coach and chief selector despite not actually having picked up any significant coaching since retiring from the international game in 2017.
Misbah's first squad also includes a new captain in Azhar Ali, with Sarfraz Ahmed's fall from favour so rapid that he does not even appear in the travelling 16, meaning Mohammad Rizwan will take the gloves for the first time almost three years after his one-and-only previous Test appearance in New Zealand. Offspinning allrounder Iftikhar Ahmed finds himself in a similar boat, recalled to the setup after time after venturing to the white-ball wilderness following his Test debut at The Oval in 2016.
Following Mohammad Amir's retirement from the first-class game in the summer, Mohammad Abbas is the only member of Pakistan's bowling attack in their previous Test to even make the cut for the tour, with the omissions of Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Shadab Khan and Fakhar Zaman adding to Misbah's wholesale changes. Haris Sohail returns after missing the tour of South Africa with a finger injury, and Imran Khan is likely to also come in for his first Test outing since Sydney in early 2017 after tearing through the Australia A middle-order with 5-for-32 in last week's tour game.
Most attention, however, is firmly on four potential debutants: opener and backup gloveman Abid Ali, orthodox spinner Kashif Bhatti, and teenage pacemen Muhammad Musa and Naseem Shah. Naseem has garnered the biggest circus, having claimed 27 wickets in just seven career first-class matches. Whilst there are conflicting reports over his precise age, most outlets believe him to be a few months shy of his 17th birthday, making him roughly half the age of uncapped teammate Bhatti.
Teenage pace sensation Naseem Shah is in line to make his international debut in the first Test at The Gabba
While Azhar is remaining coy about the exact makeup of his XI for the first Test, he has inferred that Naseem will get an opportunity and thus become one of the youngest men to play in the history of Test cricket. As for the other nine players around him, it really is anyone's guess.
Squad: Azhar Ali (c), Mohammad Abbas, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Iftikhar Ahmed, Abid Ali, Babar Azam, Kashif Bhatti, Imam-ul-Haq, Imran Khan, Shan Masood, Muhammad Musa, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Asad Shafiq, Naseem Shah, Yasir Shah, Haris Sohail
While Brisbane is currently subject to some light overnight showers, forecasts suggest a warm and sunny opener to the Australian summer, with temperatures consistently nudging 30 degrees.
Adelaide, meanwhile, is currently bracing itself for record temperatures above 40 degrees, however this is expected to cool towards the low-20s ahead of next week's floodlit second Test.
UK viewers can get exclusive live coverage on BT Sport 2 (BT 409/431, Sky 414) from 15 minutes prior to the start of each day’s play.
Australian coverage will be free-to-air on Seven as well as through Fox Cricket and online via the Kayo streaming service, while the series will be live on Ten Sports and PTV for those in Pakistan.
Bookies have Australia as firm favourites, with Dafabet offering 1/5 for Tim Paine’s side to take the opening Test. Pakistan are available at 6/1, while the draw currently sits at 8/1.
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