Pakistan vs Australia: Azhar Mahmood says despite surrendering series to Aaron Finch and Co, plenty of positives for hosts

Dubai: One-day international defeat against Australia has given Pakistan a great opportunity to test their bench strength ahead of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Men’s cricket World Cup 2019, said Pakistan bowling coach Azhar Mahmood.

“There are a lot of positives for us, like Shinwari is back, he has bowled really well and (so has) Junaid. We have got a young find in the form of Hasnain. We are trying to give bench strength more opportunities to try and play international games,” ICC quoted Mahmood as saying.

Speaking about the batsmen, he said, “Lot of positives in the batting department as well, we got a couple of hundreds — Haris (Sohail) got a hundred, (Mohammad) Rizwan got a hundred.

Unfortunately, today, ball was doing a bit so we were not good enough.”

The likes of Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam and Sarfaraz Ahmed – the Pakistan skipper — are rested for the Australia series. Mahmood believes that this has helped them give chances to other players to test who fits in the World Cup squad.

“We are trying different combinations keeping the World Cup in mind. If we play only our main strength and then someone gets injured, we won’t have any options left. This series was our best chance to test bench strength,” he added.

Pakistan will face Australia for their fourth ODI in Dubai on 29 March.