IN a brief series of two Test matches as this one against Australia it certainly is no less than a gamble to make sure that you do not falter and put in your best foot forward to emerge as the winner.

Both Pakistan and Australia having played an exciting first Test in Dubai which culminated finally in a draw in the last over of the day are bubbling with confidence to get their upper hand in the decider which will no doubt depend on how well prepared they come out.

In the drawn Test, Pakistan did have firm hold whether batting or bowling in the first innings till the Australian fightback begun dashing any hope for Sarfaraz Ahmed and his men to force a result in their favour which obviously looked so ominously close.

The beauty of Test cricket is indeed its ebb and flow and sudden turn of fortunes through a devastating bowling spell or through a classic innings from a batsman as was the case when Usman Khawaja anchored himself in the middle for his marathon innings with the help of Travis Head and captain Tim Paine.

In the fourth innings no matter how good a team is the vulnerability and the pressure to go with it and of course the state of the fourth innings pitch comes into account.

Rarely the team batting last survives. Australia in that way did prove themselves with their great escape in Dubai.

Australia are yet to win a series in Asia for seven years and this Test no doubt will be a huge challenge to prove their critics wrong and I don’t see any changes in their outfit for the match.

Pakistan on the other hand have annou­nced their players for the Test, including opener Fakhar Zaman and leg-spinner Shadab Khan in the twelve-member squad while leaving out left out unimpressive Wahab Riaz and injured opener Imam-ul-Haq.

Left-handed Fakhar has been assured of a Test cap and surely he deserves taking into consideration his performance in the limited-overs games. Unlucky in the recently-held Asia Cup, he does have the ability to handle any attack and if he has his own way of tackling the bowlers he may meet success.

That brings me to the subject of follow-on. A number of people, fans inclusive believe that Pakistan should have enforced follow-on in the first Test having taken a massive 280-run lead on the first innings.

Priorities on this subject have changed now and most of the teams prefer to bat for the second time to leave the burden of a huge total to chase for the team batting last. A lot depends on the situation of the game, weather, state of the pitch and fitness of the bowlers. The extreme hot condition like we had in Dubai where the temperatures shot up to forty degrees, no captain would recommend a follow-on for fear that he would lose players through injury for the next match.

The Pakistan captain’s decision was justifiable to bat for the second time. It’s another matter though that the opposition turned out to be too positive in defence to exploit tactical blunders of the fielding side.

The pitch in Abu Dhabi looks bare of grass and whatever tinge of green is present would be mowed down before the start of the match. Let us hope that we have as much an interesting Test here like the first one in Dubai.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2018