PERTH – If national selector Trevor Hohns and head coach Justin Langer hadhoped for some clarity over the batting vacancies in the Australia men’sTest team by the performance of the Australia A side, they were left withanything but after the second day at Perth Stadium when the team slumped to9 for 57 before regaining a modicum of respectability.
Imran Khan, a surprise selection for this tour, burst through Australia’ssecond string with 5 for 32 as Pakistan continued to show impressive signsahead of the Test series and, for a while, it appeared the innings would bedone inside the middle session.
However, they were hauled up to 122 by Cameron Bancroft – top-scoring atNo. 6 with 49 – who wasn’t part of the side until Nic Maddinson withdrew afew days ago as he added 65 in 33.1 overs for the last wicket with RileyMeredith. The first nine wickets survived only 23.3 overs between them.
After a lean start to the Sheffield Shield, Bancroft was considered welldown the pecking order for a recall and it would be astonishing if thingshad changed but it felt a little like that sort of day as others failed.
Joe Burns made a first-ball duck, incumbent opener Marcus Harris made 16,Usman Khawaja and Travis Head fell to the part-time offspin of IftikharAhmed and Will Pucovski was also out cheaply. A second innings on the finalday could yet prove decisive.
Pakistan were a bowler down in tragic circumstances following the death of16-year-old Naseem Shah’s mother, with him given leave for the day.Pakistan were offered the opportunity to bring Mohammad Abbas into theteam, but the game would have lost first-class status so they declined andcontinued with ten players.
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Players from both sides wore black armbands. Pakistan’s overnightcentury-makers, Asad Shafiq and Babar Azam, retired to allow others a hitand the total was lifted to 428 by the first interval, with Yasir Shahmaking a half-century. Jhye Richardson finished with 3 for 79, but in 118overs Australia A managed just seven wickets.
It was a bit different when Pakistan got the ball. Khan struck with hisfirst delivery when he beat Burns’ flat-footed drive and five overs laterHarris was cleaned up by a beauty from Shaheen Afridi.
Being dismissed by high-quality pace bowling with the pink ball is onething, but falling to Ahmed would not have been in the script.
