ICC WC 2023: Australia vs Pakistan: Preview & Prediction

The World Cup juggernaut moves to Bangalore for the first time in this edition of the tournament where Australia will take on Pakistan. Five-time champions Australia have found back their mojo with a win against Sri Lanka whereas Pakistan is coming on the back of a loss against arch-rivals India.

The Aussies will look to continue the momentum gained against Sri Lanka and will also try to improve on the mistakes they made on the field during the early part of the match. For Pakistan, the match provides a chance to right the wrongs the team did against India. The Babar Azam-led side will look to avoid another batting collapse and would want their lower middle order to take more responsibility in order to put a challenging score on the board. In this article, we will look at all the aspects of the match.

Australia

Australia will be happy to scratch their four-match losing streak in the World Cup with a win against Sri Lanka. They looked sloppy in the field in the first 20 overs and dropped a couple of catches as the Sri Lankan openers added 125 runs for the first wicket. It took an inspirational spell from captain Pat Cummins where he picked up two wickets to inculcate energy into the Aussie squad, That was the opening that Australia needed as they took full advantage of it and bowled the opposition out for 209 and chased the target comfortably with five wickets in hand

Pakistan

Pakistan started the tournament with two wins in two games and looked like the team to beat but a lot has changed since they lost their last match against India, most of which has to do with some off-field actions. They need to treat the loss in the previous match as one bad day and get that out of the system as soon as possible otherwise with the nature of the tournament things can go down quickly in the World Cup

Squads

Australia: Pat Cummins (c), Steve Smith, Alex Carey, Josh Inglis, Sean Abbott, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitch Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, David Warner, Adam Zampa, Mitchell Starc.

Pakistan:  Babar Azam (c), Shadab Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Abdullah Shafique, Mohammad Rizwan, Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Salman Ali Agha, Mohammad Nawaz, Usama Mir, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi, Mohammad Wasim. 

Pitch Report

The pitch of Bengaluru’s M. Chinnaswamy Stadium is well-balanced. The average first innings score in the last 20 matches is 242 runs. 

Teams who bat first have only won 35% of the time, therefore chasing is usually the superior option

Probable Starting XIs

Australia: David Warner, Mitch Marsh, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Josh Inglis (wk), Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Mitch Starc, Pat Cummins (c), Josh Hazlewood, Adam Zampa  

Pakistan: Abdullah Shafique, Imam ul-Haq, Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf  

Australia vs Pakistan Dream11 Captain & Vice Captain Choices

Captain: M Rizwan Vice Captain: S Smith, G Maxwell

Australia vs Pakistan Dream11 Team 1

Wicketkeeper & Batters: M Rizwan

Batters : D Warner, S Smith, B Azam, M Labuschagne

All-rounders: G Maxwell

Bowlers: J Hazelwood, M Starc, H Ali, S Afridi, H Rauf 

Australia vs Pakistan Dream11 Team 2

Wicketkeepers : M Rizwan

Batters: D Warner, S Smith, B Azam, M Labuschagne

All-rounders: G Maxwell

Bowlers: J Hazelwood, M Starc, H Ali, S Afridi, H Rauf 

Match Result Prediction

Australia is expected to win. 

Venue Stats

Head-to-head

Overall: Australia (69 wins), Pakistan (34 wins), tied (1), no result (3)

Past 10 years: Australia (15 wins), Pakistan (3 wins)

Most runs: Ricky Ponting (1107), Javed Miandad (1019), Mohammad Yousuf (1016), Steve Waugh (1003), Inzamam-ul-Haq (991)

Most wickets: Wasim Akram (67), Glenn McGrath (57), Shahid Afridi (49), Brett Lee (38), Shane Warne (37) 

Australia have won four of their last five 50-over World Cup matches against Pakistan stretching back to the 1999 final 

Recent form

Past 10 matches, the most recent first. W: win, L: loss, N: no result 

Australia: WLLWLLLLLW  

Pakistan: LWWLLWNWWW  

Adam Zampa (147) is three away from becoming the 11th player to take 150 wickets for Australia in men’s ODIs and the third spin bowler 

David Warner (4) is one away from equalling Ricky Ponting (5) for the most hundreds for Australia in ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup history; Warner has scored a century in each of his last three ODI innings against Pakistan (130, 179, 107)  

Mohammad Rizwan (1,941) is 59 away from scoring 2,000 runs for Pakistan in men’s ODIs; he has scored 40+ runs in seven of his last eight ODI innings (67, 44, 63*, 2, 86*, 68, 131*, 49) 

The Last Meeting

Australia last met Pakistan in three ODIs in March last year following their historic Test tour of the subcontinent nation. Warner, Smith, Mitchell Starc, and Pat Cummins all rested following a grueling 15 days of Test cricket. 

The hosts won the series – played solely in Lahore 2-1 

Where to next?

Australia heads to the nation's capital Delhi to tackle the Netherlands while Pakistan's next assignment is a clash with Afghanistan in Chennai.  

Image Credit: CricketAustralia