PAK vs AUS 2022 | Fawad Alam expects hosts’ bowlers to step up in Test series

Pakistan will host Australia for the first time since 1998 when they go up against each other on March 4, in the first of the three-match Test series in Rawalpindi. It will also be part of the World Test Championship 2021/23, where Australia sit at second place and Pakistan at third in the points table.

Ahead of the historic series, Pakistan’s left-handed middle-order batter Fawad Alam has backed his side's bowlers to prove the difference between the two quality sides. Fawad is confident that Pakistan's battery of pace bowlers, ably supported by experienced spinners, will be enough to topple an in-form Australian side, who are fresh from winning the Ashes 2021/22 by 4-0 under newly named captain Pat Cummins.

"Our pace bowlers have been bowling brilliantly. Just look at the recent Test matches played by Pakistan and you'll see that our bowling combination of fast bowlers and spinners has worked very well. We have a great bowling combination and we will try to catch Australia with that,” Fawad was quoted saying in a report filed by BBC.

Fawad then started praising their bowlers individually, saying: "Hassan Ali recently won the Pakistan Cricket Board's best bowler award and he has taken more than 40 wickets in the year, Shaheen (Afridi) is bowling magnificently, and Faheem Ashraf also plays his part. Nauman Ali and Sajid Khan have been bowling excellently. Yasir Shah (in the reserve squad) is fit again.”

Fawad, who has 953 runs in 15 Tests so far with an impressive batting average of 47.65, was in the crowd the last time Australia played in Pakistan, when Australia won by 1-0 in the Test series. Then the tourists won all three ODIs to end the tour on a high note.

“When they (Australia) came in 1998 an ODI match was played here at the National Stadium (Karachi) with a red ball and players wore white kits. I watched that match sitting outside and now I will play in the middle," Fawad recalled.