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Looking to put behind their disappointing ODI World Cup campaign behind, Pakistan team, who have undergone a host of changes from administrative level to captaincy across formats, arrived in Australia for the crucial Test series. The contest will be played between December 14 and January 7. In bid to gear up for the conditions Down Under, the Shan Masood-led side reached Sydney more than a week earlier with the team scheduled to play a practice game as well. Pakistan will be aiming to retain their top position in the World Test Championship cycle, with Australia positioned fourth.
Ahead of the series, a certain picture of the Pakistan players went viral on social media and instantly became the talk of the town where the cricketers were seen loading their own luggage onto container truck at the Sydney airport.
Speaking to the media on Sunday, fast bowler Shaheen Afridi revealed that with the team scheduled to catch their next flight in about 30 minutes, they were only helping each other out to save time.
“We only had 30 minutes to catch our next flight and we helped because there were just two people. We wanted to wrap it up fast and to save time,” said Shaheen ahead of Pakistan’s first practice session in Canberra on Sunday. “We call this team a family and helped them as a family.”
Pakistan have never won a Test series in Australia. The closest they came was in 1979 in a two-match contest which had ended in a draw. Moreover, the last time Pakistan won a Test match in Australia was in 1995. The Asian side have since lost 14 matches in a row.
We have played against the recently announced Australia’s 14-member squad, and we are all up for this challenge,” Shaheen affirmed.
“We don’t have much experience of Canberra, but I am sure this four-day match against PM XI will help us prepare well for the series against the home team starting from Perth,” he explained.
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