Australia provide benchmark test for Pakistan ahead of T20 World Cup

The last year was supposed to be the one in which Pakistan were supposed to redefine their approach towards Twenty20 cricket. It didn’t come.

Despite the promises of more aggression with the bat and the subsequent change in personnel, the team scored at just 127.47 – more than a run (1.37 to be precise) slower than the year before. There was a record for the most wins in a calendar year — 21 — but 18 of those had come against lower-ranked or weaker sides in Bangladesh, West Indies, Afghanistan, Oman, UAE, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.

The attempted reinvention — that brought in new captain and head coach — focused towards ensuring Pakistan’s T20 World Cup campaign this year does not look similar to 2024, when they were knocked out in just the group stage following embarrassing defeats to the United States and India.

There are some positives though. Pakistan look more settled as a team with the roles for each player well defined as the selectors and team management have persisted with the same core for the last 10 months.

That was not the case in last year’s Champions Trophy when Pakistan, due to an injury to one player, rejigged their entire batting order, and before the 2024 edition of the T20 World Cup when two cricketers came out of retirement only to play that tournament.

For Pakistan, who are accustomed to chaos, this is a good start. But, they face their sternest challenge when they come up against Australia — albeit in the familiar surroundings of Lahore — from Thursday in three T20Is. A series against a tough and ruthless opposition like Australia is not a bad way to get ready for a world event and it will help Salman Ali Agha in shaping his playing XI.

“These games are very important because they will determine what will be our XI for the World Cup,” the Pakistan T20I captain told a press conference before his team’s final practice session ahead of the series.

“We are pretty much on track in regards to the direction we ventured upon a year ago. We have not had the conditions [in most series] to score 200 runs, but we scored 200 whenever we got them. We did so over here [at Gaddafi Stadium] against Bangladesh in almost every game. The team’s progress has been good.”

But, there remain areas that need to be fine-tuned before Pakistan departs for Colombo.

Since their T20I tri-series victory in November 2025, Pakistan have played only two matches in Sri Lanka and the last of them had to be curtailed because of the rain. Most of the Pakistan players had been playing in leagues around the world and the performances of the batters have not been satisfactory.

Sahibzada Farhan and Saim Ayub, Pakistan’s two openers, are coming off an underwhelming BPL and Fakhar Zaman failed to fire in the ILT20. Babar Azam had a torrid BBL in which he failed to put any score of note and his scoring rate remained under scanner.

Shaheen Afridi returns to competitive cricket after a knee injury curtailed his BBL stint with Brisbane Heat. Being the most senior pacer in the side, Shaheen will carry the weight of Pakistan’s four-man fast bowling contingent and his workload will be stretched in the absence of Haris Rauf as Pakistan will often return to him in the latter half of the opposition’s innings to stop the flow of runs in the death overs.

Pakistan’s recent successes have been engineered by their spin attack and the selectors had no qualms in naming a spin-heavy contingent for the T20 World Cup, which they will play in spin-friendly conditions.

In the ongoing T20 World Cup cycle (since the final of the 2024 T20 World Cup final), Pakistan spinners have taken 140 wickets in 44 matches at an average of 18.477 and have bowled at an economy rate of 6.94. Among the full-member teams, only India have taken more wickets (161) than them at an average of 15.68. But, India’s economy rate of 7.18 falls behind Pakistan.

But, the stiff challenge that this Australian side poses will test each aspect of Pakistan’s game, which is the best possible preparation that a team can ask for before a world event. Pakistan have lost all their completed last seven T20Is against Australia, including the solitary game between these two sides on Pakistan soil (also at Gaddafi Stadium). They last won a T20I against Australia back in October 2018 when Sarfaraz Ahmed was the captain.

Australia play the series without their frontline pace attack due to the injury-related absences of Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood.

Middle-order hard-hitter Tim David will also not play in this series because of hamstring woes.

The three will join the team in Sri Lanka ahead of their warm-up in Colombo. But, the squad that in land in Lahore in two batches – first in early afternoon and the second in late evening – contains most of those in Travis Head, captain Mitch Marsh, Cameron Green, Marcus Stoinis, and Adam Zampa, who have turned this side into a formidable unit.

Australia decided against holding practice before the first T20I as most of their players have had a camp in the UAE over the last four days and the others arrived straight from Australia after having played in the BBL finals.

Marsh, who had landed in Lahore just a few hours before the press conference, revealed that the final call on the team composition will be made when the squad sits together as a group later in the evening.

“Thank you for having us,” Marsh said. “We’re very excited to be here. It’s a really important time in both teams’ preparation for the [T20] World Cup. Most of the squad has been in Dubai for the last four days training and getting together. Some of us have flown in a little bit later due to Big Bash commitments. But we’re ready to go and looking forward to a great series.”

But would there be any acclimatisation issues with such a quick turnaround?

“I didn’t pack too many jumpers,” Marsh said, “[I] wasn’t aware Pakistan got this cold.”