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It looks like a beautiful evening in Hobart. We’ll have the first ball in a quarter of an hour. Excuse me for one second whilst I ‘compartmentalise’ a rowdy toddler and grind up some much needed Lavazza.
Forget about the previews coming out of Perth, the real action is here in Hobart tonight. Third T20I.
Let’s see if Nathan Ellis plays his first international in his adopted state #AUSvPAK pic.twitter.com/gH3NT3cUbf
— Josh Schönafinger (@joshschon)
Pakistan win the toss and choose to bat first
Salman Agha wins the toss as Mohammad Rizwan is presumably putting his feet up for this one. The stand-in captain decides to have first use of the Hobart wicket.
Australia are unchanged whereas the visitors have handed a debut to southpaw pace bowler Jahandad Khan.
Teams:
Australia: Jake Fraser-McGurk, Matt Short, Josh Inglis (c & wk), Glenn Maxwell, Tim David, Marcus Stoinis, Aaron Hardie, Xavier Bartlett, Nathan Ellis, Adam Zampa, Spencer Johnson
Pakistan: Babar Azam, Sahibzada Farhan, Haseebullah Khan (wk), Usman Khan, Salman Agha (c), Irfan Khan, Abbas Afridi, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Jahandad Khan, Haris Rauf, Sufiyan Muqeem
Meanwhile, it looks like Jason Gillespie isn’t going to be axed. Not yet at least:
Whilst we wait for the coin toss, get your peepers around this:
Inside Hockley’s modest Jolimont office, within sight of the MCG, a sequinned pink and purple costume of a cartoon woman shaped like a cricket bat grabs your attention. It was worn by the backing dancers supporting Katy Perry at the landmark 2020 World Cup final and now occupies the corner.
Sitting opposite, Hockley adds one final thought. “It feels a bit premature, but I’ve been very fortunate, you’ve helped me reflect a bit,” he says. “One thing I’m not good at is celebrating our successes, I’m just very like ‘on to the next thing’. But I’m getting better at trying to celebrate everyone’s hard work.
And then the other bit is I’m not very good at enjoying the cricket and the event days, because you feel very responsible, and you just want to make sure everything’s right. So I’m determined to enjoy this summer.
Preamable
James Wallace
Hello and welcome to the final T20 between Australia and Pakistan from the Bellerive Oval in Hobart*
Australia have wrapped up the three match series already, Spencer Johnson pocketing 5-26 in Sydney to see Josh Inglis’ transitional side go 2-0 up with one to play. There’s no such thing as a dead rubber in the modern game though, Pakistan will be looking to end their white ball tour on a high after a rousing victory in the ODI series and plenty of Australia’s young players will be looking to put in strong performances that stick in the minds of the selectors with the big guns due to come back to the fold imminently.
Play begins in a little over half an hour, 7pm AEDT and 8am GMT. I’ll be back with the news of the teams and toss very soon.
*By way of a seen-better-days sofa in a murky dawned London town. Wish you were here?
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