Pakistan v Australia Test Series

By Big Joe

Commences Tuesday 13th  July, 10.00 GMT

It has been a horrendous period for Pakistan, both on and off the pitch. The ongoing security situation in Pakistan continues prevent them from playing at home and they have become the roaming nomads of international cricket. Abu Dhabi have hosted some of their games and Pakistan will be grateful to England for facilitating these games against Australia.

Pakistan’s tour to Australia last year was a disaster. They lost every match in every format and culminated in the politicians back home instigating enquiries, dishing out life bans like confetti, only to rescind those bans.

The gloom and doom was lifted last week however as Pakistan beat the Aussies in both their Twenty20 games. Those wins, under new skipper, Shahid Afridi will have given Pakistan an enormous boost ahead of this mini Test series. The formats are obviously different, but Pakistan will go into these Tests with a more positive and confident approach.

Australia are not having the best of tours to England. They lost the ODI series To England prior to the loss to Pakistan in the Twenty20 games. Their bowling attack is one of the weakest they have had in recent years and they suffered further with their main spinner Nathan Hauritz going home through injury.

Pakistan have the more balanced and experienced bowling attack and they will look forward to bowling on the English pitches. The emergence of pace Mohammed Aamer has been a great boost for Pakistan as has been the continuing good form of one of the most promising batting finds of recent years, Umar Akmal.

Overall I believe the value in this series lies in backing Pakistan. Though the batting seems well matched, Pakistan have a clear edge in the bowling department and they are going to be much more likely to force a win then the Aussies.

My suggested bets for this series therefore are:

In the Series Outright Market:

BACK Pakistan for 4 points @ 8.0 at Bet365

In The Series Correct Score Market:

BACK Pakistan to win 1-0 for 2 points @ 9.5 at Bet365

BACK Pakistan to win 2-0 for 1 point @ 34.0 at Bet365

Big Joe