Pakistan vs South Afria Match Preview

Venue: Abu Dhabi

Time: 10:00 Local time.

Finally after a long time, the much-awaited South African tour of Pakistan begins today, Abu Dhabi being the new hometown for Pakistan. The first thing that comes to be my mind of Abu Dhabi during this time of the year is the scorching heat, with temperature soring in 30’s.

After the disastrous tour South Africa, where Pakistan were tormented by Steyn and Philander, its time for them to it give back. The first thing you would notice about Pakistan team is the absence of their opener Hafeez and Nasir. Pakistan has Shan and Khurram this time to face the music by Steyn and Philander. Unlike the bouncy and seaming pitches of Africa, pitches in Abu Dhabi would be dry and placid and lacking any bounce, compound that with excess heat, one can only hope that it won’t be a high scoring draws.

Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq are the two middle orders batsman to watch-out for, they have shown some promise, but have failed to set the world on fire. This batting strip would be a good platform for them to flourish. Along with them we have the experienced duo of Younis and Misbah to stable the ship. Misbah after the match saving innings in the past would continue to be the fulcrum around with the team would revolve around. Junaid and Irfan would be the two southpaw pacers while Ajmal and Rehman the spin duo. Pakistan would definitely miss the services of Hafeez in the spin department. Adnan Akmal would be their keeper.

South Africa on the other hand would try to strengthen their foothold in Asia, in terms of victory and playing spin. Smith-Petersen duo returns after a while and look solid as ever. Kallis is returning to international scene after a while would be a bit rusty. With Sachin retiring, the focus would be on the next run machine. De Villiers was in the form of his life in Champions Trophy and Champions league, they are persisting him with the primary keeper. JP and Faf form a good middle order along with Peterson, who is no mug with bat. Pace bowling looks no different with Steyn, Philander and Morkel along with spin of Peterson.

This would be a big test for Philander, who hasn’t yet played in Asia. He hasn’t faced the flat, dry surface of Asia where there is no help for the medium pacers. So this could be a welcome to real world. It would be a challenge for him, and would be interesting to see how he copes with it.

Team Likely

South Africa: 1 Graeme Smith (capt), 2 Alviro Petersen, 3 Hashim Amla, 4 Jacques Kallis, 5 AB de Villiers (wk), 6 JP Duminy, 7 Faf du Plessis, 8 Robin Peterson, 9 Vernon Philander, 10 Dale Steyn, 11 Morne Morkel

Pakistan: 1 Shan Masood, 2 Khurram Manzoor, 3 Azhar Ali, 4 Younis Khan, 5 Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), 6 Asad Shafiq, 7 Adnan Akmal (wk), 8 Abdur Rehman, 9 Saeed Ajmal, 10 Junaid Khan, 11 Mohammad Irfan