RAWALPINDI: Fawad Chaudhry, Federal Minister for Information Technology and Broadcasting, announced Friday that Prime Minister Imran Khan will visit Pindi Stadium to watch the first Test of Pakistan’s home cricket series against Australia live from the stadium.
The minister, along with Sindh Governor Imran Ismail, arrived at the venue ahead of the match.
Taking a jibe at the Opposition in the light of the current political scenario, Fawad said:
“The Opposition is unfit or else [we] would have played a match against them.”
The Green Shirts’ batting line-up is facing one of the most difficult matches in recent memory at home and in front of a home crowd against a formidable bowling attack after Babar Azam won the toss and elected to bat first on the first day of the Rawalpindi Test.
Imam-ul-Haq and Abdullah Shafique have opened for the Pakistan side.
Since the return of Test cricket to Pakistan in December 2019, this will be the fourth Test at the venue. The 2020 Pakistan-Sri Lanka match ended in a draw.
The Pat Cummins-led side will face Pakistan in three Tests, three One-Day Internationals, and a Twenty20 International in the much-awaited series that kickstarted today in Rawalpindi.
Rawalpindi will host the opening Test and white-ball leg of the series, while Karachi and Lahore will host the second and third Tests, respectively.
Playing XI:
Pakistan: Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, Azhar Ali, Babar Azam (c), Fawad Alam, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Iftikhar Ahmed, Nauman Ali, Sajid Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah
Australia: Usman Khawaja, David Warner, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Cameron Green, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood
Match officials: Aleem Dar and Ahsan Raza (on-field), Asif Yaqoob (third umpire), Rashid Riaz (fourth umpire); Ranjan Madugalle (match referee).