Pakistan’s captain Shan Masood.Credit:Getty Images
It was a scorecard that went around the world,including to a Pakistan side that had already begun to reshape into a far more proactive mould.
“If there was any time I saw Bazball,it was that day,” Usman Khawaja told this masthead. “They put the bowlers under so much pressure,our bowlers missed the spot a lot,they really weren’t sure what to do,and that was Bazball at its best. They dominated that game,and potentially would’ve won if not for the rain.”
In Perth this week,Khawaja and his teammates will learn whether Pakistan,now led by Shan Masood,have the ability and the mental fortitude to try out a similar brand of cricket in Australia.
They have been working towards it for most of the year,trialling the new “Pakistan way” of cricket in a thumping 2-0 series victory in Sri Lanka.
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After a sequence of home series defeats,the previously passive Pakistan batting line-up surged to life,scoring at close to five runs an over in difficult,spin-friendly conditions and leaving the Sri Lankans – far from easybeats at home – with no answer.
It was,in a way,a mirror of how Crawley and company had monstered Australia’s vaunted pace attack in Manchester,the one moment in an otherwise tightly fought series where one side was “completely and utterly dominant”,to quote Ben Stokes,over the other.
Masood was Pakistan’s most articulate spokesperson during the series in Sri Lanka. After Pakistan were eliminated from the World Cup,Masood replaced Babar Azam as captain,and there is little doubt he will carry on in the same aggressive vein.