Australia vs Pakistan, 1st T20I: Probable Playing XIs

Pakistan and Australia will resume their battle once again in T20 internationals after the completion of the Test series. Australia will be looking to start afresh leaving behind the bitter memories of the test series. Pakistan humiliated them in the longest format of the game and it won't be easy for them to recover from it.

The first game of the three-match series is scheduled to be held on 24th of this month at Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi. Here, in this article, we will predict the probable playing XIs for both the teams.

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Australia

Australia played a one-off T20I match against UAE in between which they easily managed to win by 7 wickets. The Australian bowlers did a wonderful job restricting the opposition to 117/6 in 20 overs. Barring Andrew Tye, everyone was impressive and are likely to retain their spot in the squad. One possible change would be Mitchell Starc coming in place for Andrew Tye.

In batting, D'Arcy Short was brilliant during his unbeaten knock of 68 and is set to open the innings along with the skipper. There is a little chance that the remaining line-up would be tinkered for this match.

Probable Playing XI

Aaron Finch (c), D'Arcy Short, Chris Lynn, Glenn Maxwell, Ben Mcdermott, Alex Carey, Ashton Agar, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Billy Stanlake

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Pakistan

Fakhar Zaman will be the key for Pakistan in this series.

After the 1-0 win over Australia in the test series, the Pakistani team will be riding high on confidence for sure. They will try to repeat the performance in the shorter version of the game. Apart from the recent test series win, they also defeated the same opposition in T20Is in Zimbabwe not long ago. This certainly gives them an advantage over the visiting team.

Fakhar Zaman had played a brilliant inning of 91 against the Aussies in the tri-series final and would be the obvious choice to open the innings for the team. He is likely to be joined by Mohammad Hafeez at the top of the order as he did in the test series. The openers will be followed by a strong middle-order which consists of Babar Azam, Shoaib Malik and Sarfraz Ahmed.

Given the number of all-rounders present in the 15-member squad, it is going to be a tough job for management to choose the ones who will be playing in this match. Asif Ali and Shadab Khan can be sure of their spot while it will be interesting to see if selectors go with Faheem Ashraf or they prefer Imad Wasim.

Probable Playing XI

Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez, Babar Azam, Shoaib Malik, Sarfraz Ahmed (c), Asif Ali, Faheem Ashraf/Imad Wasim, Shadab Khan, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi, Usman Khan