Australia have named just the one specialist spinner in their XI, Nathan Lyon, while Pakistan have more options
Toss Pakistan won the toss and chose to bat against Australia
Josh Hazlewood has replaced Scott Boland as Australia resisted the temptation of fielding a second specialist spinner for the historic Test series opener against Pakistan, who won the toss and elected to bat on an expected flat Rawalpindi pitch.
Hazlewood suffered a side strain during the Ashes opener in Brisbane and missed the rest of the series but made a spectacular return during the T20I series against Sri Lanka. Boland, however, can feel a little hard done by after a remarkable start to his Test career, where he picked up 18 wickets at just 9.55 in three Tests.
It is Australia’s first overseas Test tour since the Ashes in mid-2019 and comes in the aftermath of Justin Langer’s resignation as coach last month.
Pakistan have won seven of their last eight Tests, including two at home against South Africa early last year.
Pakistan: 1 Imam-ul-Haq, 2 Abdullah Shafique, 3 Azhar Ali, 4 Babar Azam (capt), 5 Fawad Alam, 6 Mohammad Rizwan (wk), 7 Iftikhar Ahmed, 8 Nauman Ali, 9 Sajid Khan, 10 Naseem Shah, 11 Shaheen Shah Afridi
Australia: 1 Usman Khawaja, 2 David Warner, 3 Marnus Labuschagne, 4 Steven Smith, 5 Travis Head, 6 Cameron Green, 7 Alex Carey (wk), 8 Pat Cummins (capt), 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Nathan Lyon, 11 Josh Hazlewood
Tristan Lavalette is a journalist based in Perth