I am extremely glad that Australia finally toured Pakistan after a gap of 24 years. Unlike the 1998 tour of Pakistan which proved to be a winless series for Pakistan , Pakistan did manage to win a couple of matches this time. Although Pakistan won the ODI series the Australian team was severely depleted for the ODI series missing several star players. Pakistan lost the test series 1-0 and the one off Twenty20 match.
The test series was a hard fought one. Pakistan survived 172 overs in their second innings at Karachi which we all know is a Pakistani fortress venue. If Pakistan had lost the Karachi test they might have lost the series 2-0 to Australia but Babar Azam, Muhammad Rizwan and Abdullah Shafiq came to Pakistan's rescue. The third test saw Pakistan collapsing in their first innings for 7 wickets for 20 runs and Pakistan never recovered in the test match after that collapse.
Pakistan won the ODI series 2-1 which is a reason for all the Pakistanis to cheer as this was Pakistan's first ODI series win over Australia since 2002. The jinx of losing 16 consecutive matches to Australia across all the formats was finally broken in this ODI series. Pakistan also made a record total batting second in the second ODI of 352 runs over Australia.
Overall I would say Pakistan cricket team's performance was okay in this home series as they were facing a formidable and champion Australian team. What worries me is that in the test team we dont have any quality spinner. Our performance as an ODI side improved and credit must be given to Babar Azam and Imam ul Haq.
