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| June 19, 2002 | Wednesday | Rabi-us-Sani 7, 1423 |
Wasim Akram set to equal Azhar’s record
BRISBANE (Australia), June 18: Pakistan captain Waqar Younis is struggling to overcome a hamstring injury before Wednesday’s third and deciding one-day international against Australia at the Gabba on Wednesday.
Waqar said on Tuesday that he had only an “80 percent” chance of playing alongside veteran fellow paceman Wasim Akram, who will equal Indian Mohammad Azharuddin’s world record of 334 one-day international appearances.
Wasim set Pakistan on the path to victory with two early wickets in Melbourne last Saturday as the tourists won to level the series.
Waqar, Wasim and Shoaib Akhtar will enjoy the extra bounce in the Brisbane wicket and Australian captain Ricky Ponting admitted the Australian batsmen will need to be on their guard.
“The strength of their side is their bowling and they can be very, very dangerous,” Ponting told reporters.
Australia will shelve their rotation policy and use their best 11 players in the decider.
“We’re going to go in there and give it our best shot of winning so we probably will pick what we think is our best team,” Ponting said.
Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne are certain to start, leaving Brett Lee, Jason Gillespie and Andrew Bichel competing for the final two specialist bowling spots.
Bichel’s knowledge of the Gabba will count in his favour while Gillespie was rested from last Saturday’s two-wicket loss and is in line for a recall.
Jimmy Maher could be the batting casualty with his Queensland team-mate Matthew Hayden returning to the squad after missing Saturday’s match to be with wife Kellie for the birth of their first child.—AFP
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