Is beating Pakistan in the UAE cricket’s new final frontier?
That was the term Steve Waugh applied to the challenge of beating India in India back when his Australia team were invincible everywhere else.
That box was later ticked and even England have managed it in recent years, so perhaps it no longer represents cricket’s holy grail.
One of the reasons the rest might have caught up on India in their backyard is because so many international players get an annual jaunt there to play Indian Premier League cricket.
It is not as alien as it once was.
It is fair to say UAE grounds have been fortresses for Pakistan since major international cricket returned here on a regular basis in 2009.
Yet there is a reason to think Australia’s squad here know the conditions just as well as the Pakistanis.
The majority of the side played here when the IPL was exiled to the UAE earlier this year.
“It is a good thing for us to have that info in the back of our heads,” said Kane Richardson, the young bowler who played here for the Rajasthan Royals.
Can Ajmal be replaced?
Without wanting to seem curmudgeonly, this could be a taxing few weeks of cricket for the spectator.
In the most recent international series played here, between Sri Lanka and Pakistan, bowling did not look the slightest bit fun.
Balance between bat and ball?
As if.
May as well set up bowling machines at either end and be done with it.
Yet this series will go ahead without the game’s most potent spin bowler in tow, since Saeed Ajmal was ruled to have an illegal bowling action.
Instead of relying on his spin, Pakistan may be forced to change tack and back their pace attack.
They have plenty of speed available in the form of Bilawal Bhatti, Mohammed Irfan and a revitalised Wahab Riaz.
Encouraging the groundsmen in Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and Dubai to inject pace into the pitches, though, could be counterproductive for the home side.
Australia have arguably the best pace attack in the world.
Can either side win the World Cup?
Waqar Younis, the Pakistan coach, is fed up. He said that his side’s World Cup plans – as well as those of a variety of other nations – have been entirely hamstrung by the crackdown on suspect bowling actions.
“I think the timing was ordinary,” Waqar said of Ajmal’s censure. “The balance of certain teams has been destroyed in a way. I feel they could have waited for six or eight months and started this protocol after the World Cup.”
The grounds in Australia and New Zealand may well assist Pakistan’s pace attack, anyway, but they will certainly be a lesser threat without Ajmal.
Australia obviously know how to win at home and this series in the UAE will be more about finding the winning habit rather than a formula for the World Cup.
“You are always looking ahead, but conditions are different here to what they are going to be at the World Cup, that is a simple fact of life,” said Darren Lehmann, Australia’s coach.
“We will pick an XI that we think will win games of cricket here in Dubai. That is what is important for us, to win these games of cricket right now.”
Is Finch fit for all-purposes?
Aaron Finch said earlier this year that playing Test cricket is his No 1 goal.
Now he has found himself employed as Australia’s Twenty20 captain, on account of the fact his predecessor George Bailey wanted to focus on his own Test claims.
Much like Bailey, Finch’s likeability off the field does not necessarily fit the old job description for an Australia cricket captain.
Safe to assume he will be combative in his new role, though.
“I will be quite aggressive, you have to be willing to take risks in this format,” Finch said on arrival in the UAE.
“Sometimes they come off and you look great and sometimes they don’t and you look like a fool.”
Being handed the captaincy suggests Finch is held in high regard within Australian cricket.
Bailey graduated from T20 to the Test side and Lehmann has said he wants players to be skilled in all formats, so Finch’s prospects look bright.
“We want to stretch our Test players to be better one-day players and T20 players, and vice versa,” Lehmann said last week.
“We haven’t got a magical formula, we just need to work hard to get better.”
pradley@thenational.ae
Follow us on twitter at @SprtNationalUAE