Playing against Australia in Australia is never going to be easy. Pakistan is having a young team, and it takes some time to get the necessary team bonding and cohesion. They still have two weeks to go for the first test. Hopefully the bowlers will be fit by that time and the batsmen will get adjusted to the conditions. And before that there are two warmup matches.
It is a challenge to play in Australia and the young Pakistan team must take some time to cope up with the pitch condition and weather and what i am expecting in the upcoming test series is that Steve Smith scoring a ton in every innings he plays and he keeps on improving his average, Amir retired from Test cricket and the bowlers are not experienced in the test format.
There are ups and downs in everyone's life. Steve Smith had a horrible year in 2018, when he was banned from all international and domestic cricket in Australia for twelve months. A lot of people wrote him off, and many were saying that his international career was over. What happened after the ban is history. He single-handedly retained the Ashes series for Australia, by destroying the Brits at their home. I can't help thinking about what he could have achieved during those 12 months.
Mohammad Amir went through the same phase many years ago. His case was even worse. Back in 2010, he was not only banned, but arrested as well. He was convicted of spot-fixing and was given a five-year ban. Similar to Steve Smith, he too stayed out of cricket during his ban, but came back very strongly after that. For any other player, a five year hiatus would have meant an end to their career. But Amir had that fighting spirit in him. I hope the younger Pakistani players also show the fighting spirit that was shown by Amir.
