AUS vs PAK | It's important that we bowl consistently at blind spot to Steve Smith, advises Misbah ul Haq

Pakistan’s Test series Down Under, which will also be their first in the Test Championship, is all set to be an interesting affair thanks to the visitors' young pace attack. The men in green put up a fabulous performance in the three-day tour match which seemed to be just the beginning of a series very competitive encounters between the two sides.

"All the batsmen you talk to, any batsman in the world, that's the area where you have to defend a ball, and that is a six-to-eight-metre spot where you have to play the top of off stump. That's the area from where if it's happening then that creates a great chance. Even if it's not happening, you have less chances to do anything with the ball. So it's about consistency, and top players in the world, if you miss those areas, that special length and line, then they are good enough to just cash in on that. So you have to be very, very disciplined, just keep the ball there, and if it's happening you are already in the game."

"At the moment, they are doing it, but obviously we'll see how it goes in these conditions because these pitches are hard," Misbah said.

"But I still believe if you get good pace behind the ball and just put it in the right areas, you can create chances. That's what we are looking for, and I think they can, the way Naseem is bowling at the moment, Shaheen is very important with the new ball especially, he gets some movement in the air and off the seam also. We hope that they can do it, but you need to be very, very disciplined.

Pakistan’s ace batsman Babar Azam looks to be in superb touch lately as he is trying to break through into the top 2 spots in Test players’ rankings. Former skipper Misbah seems quite impressed by Azam’s heroics on tough South African pitches, where he scored 223 runs at an average of 36.23, as Haq hailed him a “very important player” for the team.

"It was a very difficult pitch for our three-day game and they bowled very well. We were playing pretty much the top four bowlers from Australia A. Babar Azam did both the things there - he punished the poor deliveries and respected the bowlers when it was required. He batted with a lot of maturity there. It's not just aggression, aggression and aggression, he has a very balanced approach. He puts the short balls away and even respects the good deliveries whenever he had to. He is ready to play that sort of a long innings in Tests.

"The way he has been batting these days in the warm-up games, in the T20s, and even in the nets, you can see his confidence and he has improved a lot technically, you can see the surety in him. He will be a key , especially with his confidence. Hopefully he will do well, it will be very important for Pakistan."