It is not just in Australia where a Test match will begin on Boxing Day, one will start in Karachi too where New Zealand begin a new era away to Pakistan in what should be a competitive series between two competent teams.
Pakistan have just been shown up on home soil by England and will be eager to prove that was just a freak result while New Zealand will be out to show that they can still be competitive without Kane Williamson at the helm.
Pakistan
This Pakistan outfit will go down in history as the first one to be whitewashed in a three-match series on home soil but to their credit they did improve the longer that series went on, although to be fair the bar was pretty low from them in the first place. England seemed to catch them off guard with their expansive and cavalier style of play, intent on ensuring that there were results in all matches, which isn’t generally the modus operandi from visiting teams in Pakistan.
Pakistan will be slightly disappointed with their batting output in that series. For all England were led well and put plenty of time back into the matches, they didn’t have an attack which was scary looking, especially in the spin department, yet Pakistan were bowled out on all six occasions. That needs tidying up but there needs to be a massive improvement with the ball where at times they were absolutely dreadful.
New Zealand
This is actually the first time we will have seen New Zealand in Test cricket since then were the first team to face the new style of England earlier in the year. They followed very much the same pattern that Pakistan did earlier this month in that they were competitive at times but just couldn’t stop this England juggernaut. They had an excuse when it came to injuries which hampered them more and more as the series went on.
We now know that was the last time Kane Williamson would skipper the Test side and Tim Southee takes up the reins here. He’ll need to navigate life without his seam partner Trent Boult who is away playing at the Big Bash and has signalled his intent to become a part-time Test player now anyway so the test for New Zealand on this tour is to find a way to bowl well and take 20 wickets. Generally under Williamson, the Kiwis performed well on their travels and will hope to do so here too.
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Team News
Pakistan have gone into panic mode and named a whole new selection committee who made immediate changes to a squad which was already named so we are unsure of their starting XI. Sarfaraz Ahmed could be getting a recall.
New Zealand will go into this match with a second spinner with Ajaz Patel expected to come in and partner Michael Bracewell in that department. Kane Williamson is still available as a batter but there is no Trent Boult so Neil Wagner could share the new ball.
Betting
Abrar Ahmed had a brilliant start to his Test career when he took 17 wickets in two matches against England recently and I expect him to fare even better here for a few reasons. New Zealand won’t be coming after the Pakistan attack in the same way that England did so he’ll be able to settle into a spell and build pressure. Another reason why I like him to go well here is I don’t believe the New Zealand batters are overly great at playing good quality mystery spin.
The other reason why I fancy Ahmed to go well here is this is the second match in a small matter of time here at Karachi and while the pitch might have been restored in between the two matches it isn’t going to take much for it to open up. Ahmed has a performance line of 120.5 for this match which he has almost covered with the ball alone in his first two matches. He took 11 in his first game and six in his second and if he takes six more here we’ll only need him to score one run to cover this total. I fancy this pitch will start to turn fairly early and expect him to take more than six wickets so I like the over here.
Tips
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