Doolan benefits from early arrival

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Report: Doolan, Smith find form in tour match

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On a slow and low wicket under a beating Arabian sun, Alex Doolan set about the task of cementing his place as Australia's No.3 for next week's first Test with aplomb.

For five hours in Sharjah overnight, the Tasmanian kept Pakistan A's bowlers at bay, compiling a century that all but guarantees his start in the Test starting next Wednesday in Dubai.

"My goal going in was to spend a bit of time out in the middle, take the score out of the equation and just bat," said Doolan.

"When we first got here I found it very, very hot and I struggled a little bit for the first few days.

"But that was the advantage we had of arriving early and getting used to the conditions that we face here.

"I was really pleased to spend a long period of time out in the sun and getting used to the conditions."

Just batting, without acknowledgement of the scoreboard, appears to work well for Doolan. The same approach yielded a similar result against India A in Brisbane during the winter, when he contributed an unbeaten 91 to a double-century partnership with Phillip Hughes with no result on the table.

Cricket Australia sent Doolan to India with its National Performance Squad in August – the Launceston product's first ever trip to the subcontinent, where he was a 29-year-old three-Test 'veteran' in a team full of promising next-generation hopefuls.

He thrived there too, scoring 83 before picking up a side strain that curtailed his trip.

Those scores followed an 89 on Test debut against South Africa in February, and he admitted after day two in Sharjah that it was rewarding to break through for a century.

"I think it’s good to be scoring runs at any point in time and to get a hundred in any game is a good achievement and stems well for the rest of the tour hopefully."

Doolan raced from 78 to 98 in 14 balls, the dots punctuated by three fours and a six. He then faced seven dots before skipping down the track to launch a huge six back over off-spinner Raza Hasan's head to bring up his hundred.

"I was certainly waiting for him to throw one up and thankfully he did," Doolan told reporters, with a smile.

This match's lack of first-class status, with innings restricted to 90 overs and up to 15 players available to use, robs him of the century being recorded in his career statistics.

Perhaps surprisingly for the man anointed by Ricky Ponting as his long-term successor at No.3, those stats show he has compiled six first-class centuries from 104 innings at 37.59.

With Pakistan on his mind and the spinning decks of the United Arab Emirates, Doolan spent much of his winter in Brisbane at Cricket Australia's National Cricket Centre, on his fitness and his footwork.

Although that footwork was on display – most notably for the six that brought up his century – it did not come naturally.

"It's probably something I have to concentrate a bit more on," explained Doolan.

"Growing up in Australia, playing fast bowling was a bit more comfortable to me than actually playing spin bowling.

"It is something that I've focussed on in the last four months and it seems to be working well.

"Coming over to Dubai and the UAE to play against Pakistan, we assumed that we were going to come up against some fierce spin.

"That was something that I spent a lot of time in that off-season working on and it seems to be paying off."

Doolan put on a 106-run partnership with Steve Smith, who retired out on 58. Doolan also retired having scored his century as Australia compiled 8-273 from their 90 overs in response to Pakistan A's 8-305 on day one.

The Sharjah pitch, which has not offered a lot of assistance to the spin bowlers, requires bowlers to make the most of the new ball, and Australia will be keen to see what Mitchell Marsh can make of it when he takes the field in the second innings.