Pakistan has dropped Sarfaraz Ahmed as the wicketkeeper in the playing XI for the upcoming second Test of the three-match series against Australia. This match will be played at the iconic MCG in Melbourne from December 26.
Australia had pummeled Pakistan by 360 runs in the first Test in Perth and are 1-0 up in the three-Test series.
The Pat Cummins-led side will field an unchanged XI for the MCG Test. This means no place for local hero Scott Boland in the playing combination.
But the focus will be on the Pakistan team’s combination as only one thing has been confirmed till now, the management will bring in Mohammad Rizwan as wicketkeeper in place of veteran Sarfaraz Ahmed. The visitors already need to make changes due to injuries to Noman Ali and Khurram Shahzad.
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"Rizwan just came from the World Cup, a lot of white-ball cricket. And he also had a gap in red-ball cricket since Sarfaraz took over from him for the New Zealand series. Sarfaraz had an outstanding performance there and Rizwan hadn't played a lot of red-ball cricket. So there was a method to it. He's been there, he played red-ball cricket. Karachi had a very good season where he was the tournament's MVP, and that allowed us to get a player like Rizwan into shape. If I had it my way, I'd ideally like both to play but that's not possible. Now we think Rizwan is ready and we can give Saifi that little bit of break to recuperate and come back," Masood added,” Pakistan captain Shan Masood told reporters.
The change comes after Sarfaraz put up poor scores against Australia in the first Test match. In the first innings of the opening Test match, Sarfaraz was bowled through the gates against a Mitchell Starc inswinger, and in the second innings, also fell to the same bowler.
Pakistan will name their playing XI at the toss in Melbourne.
Australia XI:
David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Mitch Marsh, Alex Carey (wk), Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins (c), Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood
Pakistan XII:
Imam-Ul-Haq, Abdullah Shafique, Shan Masood (c), Babar Azam, Saud Shakeel, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Salman Ali Agha, Shaheen Afridi, Hasan Ali, Mir Hamza, Aamir Jamal, Sajid Khan (final team to be confirmed at the coin toss)
(ANI inputs)
