(Reuters) – Pakistan and Australia head right into a winner-take-all third and last test from Monday as test cricket returns to Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium for the primary time because the 2009 assault by gunmen on a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket crew.
Top groups have largely shunned Pakistan because the assault that killed six policemen and two civilians with Australia visiting the nation for the primary time in 24 years.
The test can even be a primary for Pakistan captain Babar Azam in his residence metropolis.
“It’s a special feeling to play in entrance of a house crowd, at my residence floor. I am unable to clarify this sense,” Babar advised reporters on Sunday, including that will probably be a proud second for the nation and his crew if they’ll win the series.
While Australia named an unchanged facet from the one which failed to clinch a win in Karachi, Pakistan will take a name after taking a last have a look at the wicket.
Babar’s epic 196 and Mohammad Rizwan’s gallant century helped the hosts snatch draw from the jaws of defeat within the second test in Karachi after the opening match additionally resulted in a stalemate in Rawalpindi.
“We took quite a lot of confidence from the best way the crew performed the final test,” Babar mentioned.
“We will take that confidence into the ultimate test and we might be enjoying to win, that might be our mindset.”
With batters dominating the series thus far, the Pakistan Cricket Board employed Toby Lumsden, the previous curator of the International Cricket Council academy, to oversee the preparations of the pitch for Lahore.
Both Babar and his Australian counterpart Pat Cummins mentioned they didn’t count on the Gaddafi Stadium pitch to be a lot completely different from the primary two checks.
“There’s not quite a lot of grass on it,” Cummins mentioned. “I believe it is had numerous site visitors all through the PSL (Pakistan Super League) on it as effectively.
“It appears laborious, however I am unable to see it being an excessive amount of completely different from the opposite ones.”
(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly in Mumbai; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
