PAKISTAN and Australia have had interesting matches since they first met in 1956 in a solitary Test at the national Stadium Karachi where Pakistan pulverised the Australians inflicting a heavy defeat despite the names like Ray Lindwall, Keith Miller, Neil Harvey in the team.

The prized trophy in the game since its inception has been The Ashes and contested by the traditional rivals England and Australia. That was from the 1882-83 Test between them at the MCG when the urn containing the ashes of a bail or a bat was presented to the England captain Ivo Bligh to mourn England’s defeat by the Australians at The Oval couple of years earlier.

The passion and the ethos of that competition between the two countries swayed emotions amongst the followers of the game whenever the two met.

Regaining The Ashes and retaining the trophy was the ultimate prize which continued to enhance the rivalry for almost over a hundred years.

From W.G. Grace to Don Bradman to Hutton, Compton and Cowdrey the enthusiasm seldom diminished till the game evolved and moved on in a different direction with more and more teams competing with each other to evoke a different kind of following.

Wisden Trophy, Pataudi Trophy of recent times come to mind.

The Ashes in the last three decades seemed to have muted interest amongst its followers because of their frequent encounters with each other.

With India and Pakistan facing each other whenever possible attracts as much interest and crowd even more than The Ashes when played at home, be it India or in Pakistan.

Unfortunately, for reasons other than cricket, relations have not been too cordial at political level between India and Pakistan. But realistically a match between the two countries has always remained a drawcard.

Fazal Mahmood had destroyed them with his curling leg-cutters to win Pakistan a memorable Test which I watched sitting in the crowd.

Playing in UAE on slow pitches could be heart breaking at times for the bowlers and the batsmen. And yet Pakistan on their adopted grounds in the UAE here have managed to keep the flag flying.

In their last encounter here Pakistan scored a 2-0 win in the Tests against the Aussies with Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan, Azhar Ali showing to the world that they were no lesser mortals.

Earlier in Australia in Steve Smith’s team had given Pakistan a 3-0 drabbing.

But that is all history. Both Pakistan and Australia will be at their best under Sarfraz Ahmed and Tim Paine, the new captain. Sarfraz had a torrid Asia Cup and so did his team but overall for Pakistan last one year has been a success story.

Our memories are short and hence we immediately pounce on players’ poor performances if they fail. Fear of failure is the biggest hazard.

That will play on the minds of the Pakistan players no doubt. But Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq and Sarfraz and Babar Azam now are quite experienced with a handful of spinners and pacemen to deliver when needed.

I feel Yasir Shah can be the key looking at his record here in the past while Mohammad Abbas, Hasan Ali and Wahab Riaz too could pose problems.

Australia have never fancied slow and low bounce pitches in this region and that will be their handicap if any but they too have Mitchell Starc, Peter Siddle, Nathan Lyon and Jon Holland as spinners to match.

If only right decisions are made and horses for the courses are picked by Pakistan, I don’t see much problem, be it Australia now or New Zealand later this month.

Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2018