The defending champions Pakistan take on Australia today at st.lucia. Pakistan beat Bangladesh yesterday by 21 runs and they will be feeling confident ahead of this match. Whereas on the other hand, Australia will be under extreme pressure to win this. Australia lost their opening fixtures in both the previous world cups and their coaching staff must have briefed them about how important is it to begin well.
Australia is taking this format seriously now and they have specialist T20 players in their current squad. They are with their new captain Michael Clarke. David Warner, Cameron White, David Hussey, Shaun Tait and Dirk nannes are considered to be their T20 specialist with mitchel Johnson, Michael hussey , brad haddin and Michael Clarke having the experience of all the three levels.
Australia has all the three quickies who can bowl around 90mph so dealing with the pace trio of mithcell Johnson, shaut tait and dirk nannes wont be easy. The big decision that Michael Clarke has to make is to whether to go with specialist spinner Nathan haurtiz or to go with hard hitting allrounder Stephen smith!
Afridi said after the match about ‘butt’, i thought maybe he was going to the WI with me, but i don’t think he will get a chance. But when i saw him, he was batting really well, especially in the first six overs, i told salman: ‘you are my main guy’.
Pakistan probably will go for an unchanged side. There was not much of a practice for the middle order batsman of Pakistan in the previous game so it is important for Pakistan that their openers give them the right start.
Australia (probable starting 11) 1 Shane Watson, 2 David Warner, 3 Michael Clarke (capt), 4 David Hussey, 5 Cameron White, 6 Brad Haddin (wk), 7 Michael Hussey, 8 Steven Smith, 9 Mitchell Johnson, 10 Dirk Nannes, 11 Shaun Tait. .
Pakistan (probable starting 11) 1 Salman Butt, 2 Kamran Akmal (wk), 3 Shahid Afridi (capt), 4 Abdul Razzaq, 5 Misbah-ul-Haq, 6 Mohammad Hafeez, 7 Umar Akmal, 8 Fawad Alam, 9 Mohammad Sami, 10 Mohammad Aamer, 11 Saeed Ajmal.
Pakistan better watch out for david warner because the new ball pair of Pakistan provides pace and thats what warner looks for. If he gets a start, it will be threatening one for Pakistan.
"On these types of tracks he'd be very difficult for the opposition."
Shahid Afridi wants Nathan Hauritz to play. But does he really think he'll be a threat or does he just want to face him?
"They're not going to be bowling short. They're going to be bowling full and they're going to be going further. So we'll see what happens."
David Warner is eying the straight boundaries in this tournament
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