The Pakistan team is set to play a two-day practice game against Victoria XI before the Boxing Day Test against Australia on December 22 and 23. Australia's all-rounded performance sunk Pakistan as the Asian Giants ended up suffering a massive 360-run defeat. Originally, this game was not a part of the tour, but Pakistan made a request to arrange the game due to concerns about lack of practice according to ESPNcricinfo. This game won't be like a four-day Test affair against the Prime Minister's XI, the Pakistan team will get the opportunity to try more than 11 players as it is not a first-class game.
"That [the Victoria tour game] was something extra we added into the schedule because it wasn't there earlier. We wanted to have more practice rather than only one practice game. That had first-class status, so we couldn't give all the bowlers the chance to have a feel," Pakistan head coach Mohammad Hafeez said as quoted from ESPNcricinfo.
"That's the reason we wanted to have this practice game, so more guys could get a feel of a match scenario; we felt that would work well. We will definitely plan accordingly. All the players should use those two days to make themselves more familiar with the situations and the conditions," Hafeez added.
Hafeez also revealed that they asked Cricket Australia to prepare a surface that bears resemblance to the pitch for the Test match.
"The conditions we get fall under Cricket Australia's domain. We have requested similar conditions to the Test match so that our players can take advantage of these conditions. This game was not part of the tour but I wanted our players to have match-scenario style practice. We're grateful to CA for accepting our request and providing this facility. We will try to learn from this in the most effective possible way," Hafeez said.
The 2nd Test match will be played on December 26 in Melbourne.
Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Steve Smith, Mitch Starc, David Warner.
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