The 1st Test Match between Pakistan VS Zimbabwe starts from 3rd September 2013 at Harare till 7th September 2013. Watch live streaming of the whole match everyday only at ISCPak.
Match Starts At:
08:00 AM (GMT)
1:00 PM (PKT)
Click Here for Cricket Live Page
Team news:
Pakistan will take a call on Hafeez only on the morning of the match. It is very likely that he will be ready but if he doesn’t play, Azhar Ali and the recalled Khurram Manzoor – who was brought into the squad after Imran Farhat opted out for personal reasons – are likely to open. Wahab Riaz, who was also recalled for this series, will probably partner Junaid with the new ball.
Pakistan (probable) 1 Mohammad Hafeez, 2 Khurram Manzoor, 3 Azhar Ali, 4 Younis Khan, 5 Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), 6 Asad Shafiq, 7 Adnan Akmal (wk), 8 Wahab Riaz, 9 Saeed Ajmal, 10 Junaid Khan, 11 Abdur Rehman
As has been the case all through this tour, Zimbabwe named their squad late on the eve of the first match. Their 16-man squad had a few key figures missing from the Tests against Bangladesh, with Ray Price having retired, Kyle Jarvis having moved to England and Graeme Cremer having made himself unavailable due to the money issue. Sean Williams was named, even though it was understood earlier in the day that he would not play until paid.
Zimbabwe (probable) 1 Vusi Sibanda, 2 Tino Mawoyo, 3 Hamilton Masakadza, 4 Brendan Taylor (capt), 5 Malcolm Waller, 6 Elton Chigumbura, 7 Richmond Mutumbami (wk), 8 Prosper Utseya, 9 Brian Vitori, 10 Shingi Masakadza, 11 Tendai Chatara
Look Out For:
Tino Mawoyo is back in contention after recovering from a groin injury that kept him out for five months. In their last four Tests, Zimbabwe have tried several opening combinations, with Vusi Sibanda, Timycen Maruma, Hamilton Masakadza, Regis Chakabva and Mawoyo all trying out. Still, they’ve managed only one score above forty, and no half-century stand. In Harare, Mawoyo is very likely to feature as opener, given his relative success against Pakistan – in 2011 he scored a gritty, unbeaten 163 against them to become only the third Zimbabwe player to carry his bat. That’s exactly the kind of fight Zimbabwe will be looking for in Harare.
It goes without saying that Zimbabwe will be challenged by Pakistan’s spinners. However, with the conditions expected to offer the pacers a little bit of help in the mornings, Junaid Khan‘s swing could be just as lethal as Saeed Ajmal’s doosra. He had missed the second and third Tests of the South Africa series with a skin ailment, and will be keen to get back to the long format and improve on his promising start in Tests: he has 29 wickets in nine matches at 28.17, made all the more impressive by the fact that a chunk of his matches have come on the unresponsive UAE tracks.
Stats and Facts:
- Pakistan have lost an away Test to Zimbabwe only once in eight matches – that defeat came in the maiden Test between the two in Harare, in 1995. Overall, Pakistan have lost only twice in 16 games to Zimbabwe.
- Zimbabwe have played four Tests this year, but Brendan Taylor is the only batsman to aggregate more than 200 runs for them. With 391 runs at 55.85, he has the sixth-best average among batsmen who’ve played at least four Tests this year.
