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All you need to know for the Test summer

Your one-stop shop for the Australia's Men's Cricket Team's upcoming Domain Test series against Pakistan

When is it?

November 21, in Brisbane, as the Queensland venue returns to its traditional spot at the front end of the Test summer. Play will start at 10am local time (11am AEDT, 8am in Western Australia and 5am in Pakistan).

The second Test will be played in Adelaide as day-night Test cricket returns after last summer's hiatus. The pink-ball match will begin at 2pm local time (2.30pm AEDT, 11.30am in Western Australia and a much more palatable 8.30am in Pakistan).

After Pakistan depart, there will be a three-Test series against New Zealand taking in Perth (d/n), Melbourne and Sydney, but first things first, let's focus on Pakistan.

First Test: November 21-25, Gabba (Seven, Fox & Kayo)

Second Test: November 29 – December 3, Adelaide (d/n) (Seven, Fox & Kayo)

How to watch on TV in Australia

This Test series marks the second summer of Test cricket on Channel Seven, with every day of the series on free-to-air television and Ricky Ponting will again lead the commentary line-up.

For fans with a subscription to Foxtel, the series will be broadcast on the dedicated Fox Cricket channel, with no ads during play. It will also be available in 4K definition for those with the necessary equipment. Fox boast a commentary team featuring Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne and, for this series, Pakistan great Wasim Akram.

How to stream online in Australia

For online viewers, every ball will be streamed live through cricket.com.au and the CA Live app with a Kayo subscription. Available with a 14-day free trial, a Kayo subscription gives you streaming access to every men's international Test, ODI and T20 international played in Australia, every BBL and WBBL match, all women's internationals on home soil and the finals of the Marsh One-Day Cup and Marsh Sheffield Shield.

Kayo will also stream Australia's ODI tour of India in mid-January, and the limited overs tour of South Africa in late February.

It will also give access to more than 50 sports live and on demand across 180 competitions. A monthly subscription costs $25 per month. For full details on the live streaming options, and a comprehensive FAQ, click here.


How to listen in Australia

If you can't watch or prefer listening to the radio, live coverage of the series will be provided by ABC Grandstand, Crocmedia and the Macquarie networks. The audio will be streamed via cricket.com.au and the CA Live app, or tune in through your local station.

How to follow from Pakistan

The Australia-Pakistan Test series will be broadcast live by Ten Sports and the public broadcaster PTV for fans back in Pakistan. Everyone from the subcontinent will be able to view extensive clips and highlights online through cricket.com.au and the CA Live app, as well as our YouTube channel that has now rocketed past four million subscribers.


Day five tickets

Entry to the ground on the fifth day of all Test matches will be via gold coin donation. The official charity partner for the Gabba Test will be Movember, and at Adelaide it's the Lord's Taverner's.

Official charity partners for 2019/20 Domain Test Series

Brisbane Test v Pakistan: Movember Foundation

Adelaide Test v Pakistan: Taverners Australia

Perth Test v NZ: Telethon (Foodbank WA)

Boxing Day Test (MCG) v NZ: Alannah and Madeline Foundation

Pink Test (SCG) v NZ: McGrath Foundation

Get to know the venues

Get the inside word on Australia's Test venues this summer with Domain, as they give the premier Test venues the real estate agent treatment in their listings, with an exclusive look behind the scenes, complete with property features like the number of bathrooms, parking spaces, kitchens, pools, dining rooms, and locker rooms.

Each venue hosting a Test match this summer – with three against the Blackcaps to follow the two against Pakistan – is profiled by Domain, and fans can win a box at the Adelaide Oval, the MCG or the SCG this summer. For more info, click here.

World Test Championship

The two-Test Domain Series marks Pakistan's debut in the World Test Championship, while for Australia it will be their second series after this year's Ashes contest that began the new league structure where 120 points are up for grabs in each series.

Australia's 2-2 draw with England means they sit on 56 points with both teams collecting eight points for the one drawn Test. With the 120 points divided by the number of matches in the series, it means there are 60 points on offer for each Test against Pakistan in this series. A clean sweep for Australia would vault them up to 176 points, which would still be a very distant second to India who already have 300 points having won all six of the Tests they've already played under the WTC format.

Why Australia's players love Pat Cummins

The last time they met

Mohammad Abbas was Australia's chief tormenter with 17 wickets in two Tests in the UAE in October 2018, a series that Pakistan won 1-0. Abbas became the first fast bowler to record a 10-wicket haul in a Test in the UAE when he skittled Australia twice in Abu Dhabi for the Pakistanis to claim a 373-run win.

It was a bitter pill for Australia to swallow, especially given the goodwill they'd generated in the previous Test in Dubai when – in their first Test match following the black days of Cape Town – Usman Khawaja (141 from 302 balls), debutant Travis Head (72 from 175 balls) and captain Tim Paine (61 from 194 balls) led a dogged fourth-innings defiance as the team batted 140 overs for the last day and a half to secure a gutsy draw.

Form guide: batsmen

Babar Azam: Last time Pakistan toured Australia Josh Hazlewood claimed the wicket of Babar Azam three times in six innings. But the Pakistan star has improved immeasurably since then and looms as a key player for the visitors' ambitions of a first Test win on Australian soil since 1995.

"There is a world of difference between Babar of 2016 and Babar now," Pakistan head coach and chief selector Misbah-ul-Haq told cricket.com.au this week. "He's now a matured and experienced player.

"In 2016, he was very new and didn't have much experience in Test cricket. Also, he was batting at number three. Now he's batting in the middle-order and has the experience of three (more) years on his side.

"He did well in South Africa and batted beautifully against fast bowling.He plays good shots on the back foot, which will be handy in these conditions. He's scored runs in T20s as well as in the tour match so he'll be coming into the series on the back of some good form. He's our key player."

'He could be anything': Ponting on Babar

Steve Smith: What this man did during the Ashes series in England during the winter was sensational, and Australian audiences are rightfully salivating at the prospect of seeing him back in Test match action on home soil. His 774 runs in just four Tests saw him average 110.57.

He hit three centuries – one of them a double –and three other fifties. And he did it having been out of the Test match game for nearly 18 months. Such was his dominance, a duck in his first Marsh Sheffield Shield innings of the summer turned became a viral video on social media last month as England fans despaired that Queensland's Cameron Gannon had achieved what their nation's best had failed to do.

But that duck was just a blip – he's since hit centuries in his two Shield matches since, and showed his skills are transferable no matter the colour of the ball or number of overs, torching Sri Lanka and Pakistan in T20 cricket.

Australia coach Justin Langer is at a loss to explain how Smith does what he does, but calls him the greatest 'problem solver' he's ever seen – and there's not been a bowler he hasn't been able to solve in the past six years.

We can't promise it's going to be orthodox, but it sure is going to be fun watching him back in Baggy Green on home soil this summer.

'It's Smithy's world and everyone else is living in it'

Form guide: bowlers

Mohammad Abbas: One of the more intriguing match-ups is going to be Pakistan's crafty seamer Mohammad Abbas against Australia's Steve Smith. The pair missed each other when Abbas was at his destructive best against the Aussies 13 months ago, and this promises to be a battle of wills and patience – which each man has plenty of.

The 29-year-old from Sialkot, Punjab, will play just his 15th Test at the Gabba but already has 66 wickets at an incredible average of 18.86. He bowls in the mid-130kph range and won't rely on the express pace of some of his more youthful teammates but rather nagging accuracy that restricts batsmen, dries up runs and suffocates them into making mistakes.

He has a career economy rate of less than 2.5 and over, but how he copes with the faster, bouncier conditions of Australia will be key for Pakistan. Abbass struggled in South Africa earlier this year, taking five wickets across two Tests there, but showed good signs taking 2-22 in Pakistan's WACA tour match.

Watch every Mohammad Abbas wicket v Australia

Mitchell Starc: Australia's pace spearhead will arrive at the Gabba fortress with a point or two to prove, and it promises to be an uncomfortable time for Pakistan's batsmen. With James Pattinson's suspension for the opening Test after an on-field slur and no replacement named, Starc has been guaranteed a start at the Gabba, barring any unforeseen circumstances.

He's endured being sidelined for three of the Ashes Tests and had pundits claiming captain Tim Paine should throw the cherry-red new Kookaburra past him to others to open the innings.

It's undoubtedly going to have lit a fire in the ultra-competitive Starc. His last start on Australian soil saw him destroy Sri Lanka as he took 10 wickets in Canberra. Since then he's been the leading wicket-taker at the 50-over World Cup (again) and warmed the pine in the Ashes.

He arrives to this Test summer with a tweaked action, having refined his game with some minor technical adjustments that saw him capture career-best Marsh Sheffield Shield figures in a 10-wicket haul against Tasmania, and backed that up with 4-57 in the fourth innings against Western Australia at the SCG to bowl NSW to a win.

Starc wreaks havoc in final Test tune-up

The squads

Australia squad: Tim Paine (c), Cameron Bancroft, Joe Burns, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Matthew Wade, David Warner

Pakistan squad: Azhar Ali (c), Abid Ali, Asad Shafiq, Babar Azam, Haris Sohail, Imam-ul-Haq, Imran Khan Snr, Iftikhar Ahmed, Kashif Bhatti, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Musa Khan, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shan Masood, Yasir Shah.

Ricky Ponting's final word

There's no better tactical analyst of the game of cricket than former Australia captain Ricky Ponting. He'll be on the airwaves for Channel Seven throughout the summer and the man described as a "visionary" by Australia coach Justin Langer will again add his unique insights exclusively for cricket.com.au on every day of the Domain Test Series.

Ponting's Australia v Pakistan series prediction