After losing two back-to-back Tests against Australia, Pakistan will look to overcome their lackings, win the last Test match, and start the new year on a positive note. 

Before the final Test match, let’s have a look at the preview, which will take place on Wednesday, January 03 at Sydney Cricket Ground at 12 pm Bangladesh time ( Local Time 05:30 am).

It will be the last match of the series, an important one for Pakistan, as their mediocre tour in Australia continues over two decades.

Preview of Pakistan vs Australia Third Test Match in 2023 

Although they lost both matches, Pakistan showed promise at the start. But lack of inconsistency, and poor performance from the batters, led to a bad ending.

Overview of PAK vs AUS First Test

The 1st Test was played from the 14th to the 17th of December at Perth. 

Australia won the toss and decided to bat first. Australia scored 487 runs after getting all-out. David Warner and Mitchell Marsh put up a strong 360-run partnership. Warner and Marsh scored 164 and 90 runs respectively. 

Debutant Khurram Shahzad and Aamer Jamal impressed the most as they took 12 wickets combined out of the total 15 wickets Pakistan took in the match.

Pakistan team made a good start, as Imam ul Haq and Abdullah Shafique scored 60 and 42 respectively. But soon they started to crumble consistently. Nathan Lyon was the pick of the bowlers, taking 3 wickets. Besides, Cummins and Starc chipped in with 2 wickets each.

Australia declared their second innings after scoring 232 runs, losing 5 wickets, and set a massive target of 450 runs.  Mitchell Marsh was adjudged man of the match.

Pakistan in reply, collapsed heavily, scoring only 89 runs, facing the heaviest defeat of 360 runs. Skipper Pat Cummins took 5 wickets. Lyon contributed with the ball again, taking 3 wickets.  

Read more: Bangladesh Cricket in 2023: Men’s ODI Series- Performance Analysis

Overview of PAK vs AUS Second Test

After a heavy defeat, Pakistan faced Australia on the 26th of December in Melbourne. 

Pakistan won the toss and chose to bowl.

Australia scored only 318 runs. Marnus Labuschagne scored 63 runs. Aamer Jamal took 3 wickets, while Shaheen, Hamza, and Ali took 2 wickets each.

Pakistan managed to score only 264 runs. Scoring 62 runs, Abdullah Shafique made a good start. Shan Maqsood, captain also scored a half-century.

Cummin's outstanding bowling picked up 5 wickets, while Lyon took 4 wickets. 

Australia could not start their second innings as expected. They lost 4 wickets in a very short time with a score of 16 runs on the board. 

Mitchell Marsh steadied the innings with Steve Smith, putting up a partnership of 153 runs. Still, Australia managed to score only 262 runs, setting a total of 317 runs for Pakistanis to chase. Mitchell Marsh, Steve Smith, and Alex Carrey scored 96, 50 and 53 runs respectively.

Shaheen Afridi and Mir Hamza took 4 wickets each and restricted the Aussies to a score that would be easy to chase down in the last innings.

Pakistan batted their second innings with clear intent to win the match and level the score 1-1.  

But unfortunately, they could not chase down the total, getting all out for just 237 runs. Shan Maqsood,  Babar Azam, and  Agha Salman scored 61 runs, 41 runs, and 50 runs respectively giving some hope to win the match.  

Pat Cummins was too much to handle, as he bagged another 5, ending the match with 10 wickets.  He was awarded the Man of the Match award.

Read more: Was 2023 a Good or Bad Year for Bangladesh Cricket? Here’s What Stats Say

Pakistan vs Australia Head-to-Head Records In Test

Australia is way ahead of Pakistan in Tests, winning 34 matches, whereas Pakistan only won 15 matches.

Probable Australia Test Squad

Pat Cummins (c), David Warner, Steven Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Usman Khawaja, Alex Carey, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Cameron Green, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Starc, Lance Morris, Scott Boland, and Josh Hazlewood.

Probable Pakistan Test Squad 

Shan Masood(c), Abdullah Shafique, Mohammad Rizwan, Saud Shakeel, Babar Azam, Imam-ul-Haq, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Saim Ayub, Aamer Jamal, Agha Salman, Faheem Ashraf, 

Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Wasim, Sajid Khan, Abrar Ahmed, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Noman Ali, Mir Hamza, and Khurram Shahzad.

Final Verdict

After taking the series 2-0, Australia will look forward to winning the last match and wrap up the series with a clean sweep of, 3-0. Before this series, Australia were dominating with 34 wins against Pakistan overall. 

Pakistan only won 15 against Aussies. And, they have lost the ongoing series. Still, they will try to end the 2023 PAK vs AUS Test Series with a win and start their new year 2024 with a fresh approach. 

Read more: Bangladesh Men’s Test Cricket in 2023: Performance Analysis