T20 World Cup | Semi-Final | PAK vs AUS: Will the jinx breaking Pakistan smash another by beating Australia in knockouts?

It has been a tournament of many firsts for Pakistan. Beating India for the first time in a World Cup, remaining undefeated in five matches straight in an ICC tournament and topping their group to enter the semi-final. These are just to name the major ones. Coinciding with these firsts there is yet another opportunity for the men in green to achieve the unachievable. 

Be it the ODI World Cups of 1987, 1999 or most recently 2015, Australia have beaten Pakistan in the semi-final, final and quarterfinal respectively. For that matter in the T20 World Cup of 2010, Michael Hussey single-handedly brought down Pakistan, scoring 18 off the last over of the famous semis clash. 

While there is a jinx for Pakistan to break, Australia, one of the best cricketing teams, have been devoid of a T20 World Cup so far and there could be no bigger motivation than that. 

However, Pakistan, apart from the breaking of the jinx, have come into the World Cup with a resolve to show the big four of cricket that they mean business and having already defeated India and New Zealand, their aim is now to get equal with the likes of Australia and England. And thus, they would put in something extra to make sure that they live up to give that dream another go and qualify for the finals. 

So fasten your seatbelts and get ready for a belter at the ring of fire on Thursday, November 11. 

What's at stake?

The stakes couldn’t be higher than this for both teams. In the recent past, none of the two teams have achieved anything big and thus this is an opportunity to get to the big stage and show to the world that they are here and they are alive. 

For Australia, getting into the final and then winning could give them the validation they require. That they are a good T20 unit, despite what the world says about them. It will also tone down the public war that the Australian media has with their coach Justin Langer and could be a good influence over the squad ahead of the Ashes series. 

For Pakistan, their cricket board chief Ramiz Raja’s message of ‘being the best in the world so that all teams would by default want to play you’ could and should ring in their ears throughout the tournament till they finally achieve what they have resolved to do. 

What needs to change?

For Australia, a lot of things could change, for example, their middle-order batting could really try and get going. None among Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis have really cut loose apart from the first game against South Africa when Stoinis and Matthew Wade won the game for the team in the end. 

Middle-order of Australia is a problem that could be well exploited if Shaheen Afridi and company could get early inroads dismissing Aaron Finch and David Warner. 

For Pakistan, there are two things that would be bugging them - Fakhar Zamaan and Hasan Ali are two players who haven’t really got going in any game. Imad Wasim hasn’t really fired with either ball or bat, but since his role is of containment, not many people would put fingers on him. Thus Babar Azam could really do with Hasan and Fakhar finding their form, the two players who won Pakistan their last ICC trophy, the Champions Trophy in 2017. 

Pakistan vs Australia: Match Details

England vs New Zealand

Match Number - 2nd Semi-Final

Date and Time: November 11, 2021, 07:30 pm IST, 06:00 pm Local, 02:00 pm IST

Venue: Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai

Broadcast and Livestream: Star Sports and Hotstar

Pitch Report

The pitch at Dubai has really been helpful to the bowlers early on. Although a fully closed structure, still it allows a great amount of swing for the bowlers very early on in the innings but ends up relatively being a good batting track afterwards. 

Spinners can also get purchase and if they give the ball a bit of flight, especially while bowling in the first innings. Ravi Ashwin explained in India’s last game against Namibia that the cross breeze at the Dubai stadium is a thing of a real asset for the spinners. It allows the bowler to manipulate the ball in the air, generating a good skid from the pitch.

In the second innings, there would be dew and thus bowling might get very difficult in the back end of the game.

Weather Forecast

The temperature at the stadium will fall from 28-degree Celsius at 06:00 pm to 24-degree Celsius by 10:00 pm and similarly, the humidity will increase from 44% to 54%. There would be a light breeze blowing and it being a 06:00 pm start at local time, dew in large amounts is expected in the second innings. Thus a captain winning the toss would look to chase in all circumstances. 

Team News

Pakistan

The Pakistan lineup has been the only team in the entire tournament which has not faced any issue with injury and even if Zaman and Hasan have not been in form, they have played all games and gained confidence and who knows, might become the hero in the next two games. 

However, disaster has struck. 

It has been reported that Mohammad Rizwan and Shoiab Malik have found themselves down with flu and have missed training a day before the game. And that is very scary, given Pakistan have found a perfect combination to dominate this tournament. However in these circumstances, Pakistan might be forced to field Sarfaraz Ahmed in place of Rizwan and Haider Ali will take the place of Shoaib Malik. In that case, Fakhar Zaman will be partnering up with Babar Azam in the opening spot. 

Probable XI

Mohammad Rizwan/Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Babar Azam (c), Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik/Haider Ali, Asif Ali, Shadab Khan, Imad Wasim, Hasan Ali, Haris Rauf, Shaheen Afridi

Australia

The Australian lineup after trying and testing in many games have finally come to a settled eleven with Mitch Marsh and Smith playing alongside each other and Glenn Maxwell and Stoinis working in tandem to be the fifth bowler alongside three pacers and Adam Zampa. 

Probable XI

David Warner, Aaron Finch (c), Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Steven Smith, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade (wk), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood

CE XI Fantasy team

Wicketkeepers Mohammad Rizwan

Batters - Babar Azam, Shoaib Malik, Asif Ali, David Warner

All-rounders - Shadab Khan, Glenn Maxwell

Bowlers - Shaheen Afridi, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood

Vice-captain - Adam Zampa

Captain - Mohammad Rizwan