Batting was the major reason for Australia to lose their test series v/s Pakistan in UAE.
After suspension of top 3 players (2 opener and middle order), Australia went into this series with a fresh group of opening batsmen. This time opportunity went to Aaron Finch and Usman Khawaja, with Aaron Finch making his Test debut. Both performed well, with Khawaja scoring his 7th Test century (2nd as an opener).
Interestingly Khawaja has only opened in 5 inns (4 tests) for Australia, and has scored 453 runs featuring 2 hundreds and 2 fifties!.
With this record and performance in UAE he definitely has sealed his spot as an Test opener. His knee-injury might not be a good news, but when fit, he should retain his place in Test XI.
Finch’s mature performance was commendable. He is a naturally opener in all format, and if gets more opportunity then one feels he would have same impact as David Warner had when he came into the Australian side. Finch has more conventional attacking shots than Warner, meaning he can bat deep into innings.
Other than openers, only Travis Head played for substantial innings. Rest of the batting caved in after getting a good start.
Here is Avg Runs for each Batting Position during their series v/s Pakistan in UAE -2018
Here is Avg Runs for their Partnerships during their series v/s Pakistan in UAE -2018
A comparison of above two stats with their performance in Asia for last 20 years(1998-2018). This includes test matches played in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan and UAE.
Batting Partnerships(1998-2018) in Asia
Batting XI – Average runs for each position including centuries and fifties in Asia(1998-2018)
The calculation of Runs/Wkt in all tables are inclusive of Not outs!.
