Hard ball vital to reversing final-day demons

Finding reverse swing within the final day's first session shapes as Australia's biggest weapon in their push for victory in Karachi and their endeavour to bury the mounting final-day demons that linger from recent years.

With one Test to come in Lahore, the Aussies will be on the verge of claiming a first Test series triumph abroad in six years if they can wrangle out the final eight Pakistan wickets on a worn, but not yet volatile, National Stadium surface on Wednesday.

Winning series away from home was one of the key goals outlined by Pat Cummins when he took over as Test skipper, something Australia have not managed in seven tours since a 2-0 win over New Zealand in 2016.

Knocking over teams in the fourth innings has also been something of an Achilles heel in recent years.

From Australia’s previous 20 Tests (stretching back to the start of the 2019 Ashes tour) they have failed to take the wickets needed on four of the seven times they've been bowling for victory on the final day.

That two of those encounters – Ben Stokes' Leeds miracle in 2019 and the depleted Indians' series-clincher at the Gabba last year – saw their opposition not only deny them but also chase down huge victory targets (358 and 328 respectively) is a lingering scar.

Of the other two missed final-day wins, Cummins was skipper for only the most recent one – the rain-affected draw against England at the SCG in January, the same fate Australia suffered against India at that venue a year earlier – and the fast bowler insisted at the time he had no regrets over the timeliness of his declaration.

Those four failures of course remain greater talking points in hindsight than the three occasions during that period when Australia's vaunted bowling attack succeeded on the fifth day – at Edgbaston and Old Trafford in 2019, and then a final-session win over England with the pink ball in Adelaide in December.

Australia's hopes of evening the ledger rest largely on their ability to find reverse swing while the second new ball they took late on day four remains firm, believes assistant coach Michael di Venuto.

That was the key factor in their day-three demolition of Pakistan when Mitchell Starc led an irresistible bowling effort to knock over the home side for just 148 in reply to the visitors' mammoth 9-556 declared.

A day on, Cummins' men found the going harder after setting Pakistan a nominal 506 for victory as Babar surged to his sixth Test century and was supported ably by young opening star Abdullah Shafique in an unbroken 171-run stand.

"Yesterday (during Pakistan's first innings) when the ball was hard and reversing, we got a couple of breakthroughs and we were able to put a hole in them as far as wickets," di Venuto said on Tuesday.

"So today they got through that period, the ball softened, it doesn't do as much.

"We probably thought there might have been a bit more in the wicket today as far as spin and a bit more variable bounce, but once the ball softens ... there was occasionally, but those chances just didn't come from us.

"And Pakistan played very well, as well.

"Both while it's shiny in the first few overs, and then when reverse swing comes in probably 20 overs in, so far this game has generally been when it's started with the harder ball.

"So that's going to be a crucial period of play for us (on day five)."

Di Venuto did not avoid admitting Steve Smith's dropped catch at slip off Shafique, that would have left Pakistan on 3-38 in the 28th over with Cummins beginning a fresh spell and put the hosts in a similarly precarious position to the one they crumbled from a day earlier, was a crucial missed chance.

"That was when reverse swing was starting for us, the ball was quite hard and yesterday that's when we got the breakthroughs," di Venuto said of the chance put down by the normally ultra-reliable catcher Smith.

"And that's when it's at its toughest, the reverse swing, when the ball's still hard.

"It was a drop we would have liked to have taken, and Steve's got outstanding hands so it's a catch he would catch 99 (times) out of a hundred.

"Unfortunately here, it can be tough too.

"The slips have to stand really close and unfortunately on this occasion it went down."

Qantas Tour of Pakistan 2022

Pakistan squad: Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (vc), Abdullah Shafique, Azhar Ali, Faheem Ashraf, Fawad Alam, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Naseem Shah, Nauman Ali, Sajid Khan, Saud Shakeel, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shan Masood, Zahid Mahmood.

Australia Test squad: Pat Cummins (c), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, Mark Steketee, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner. On standby: Sean Abbott, Brendan Doggett, Nic Maddinson, Matthew Renshaw

First Test: Match drawn

March 12-16: Second Test, Karachi

March 21-25: Third Test, Lahore

Australia ODI and T20 squad: Aaron Finch (c), Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Alex Carey, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Marsh, Ben McDermott, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa

March 29: First ODI, Rawalpindi

March 31: Second ODI, Rawalpindi

April 2: Third ODI, Rawalpindi

April 5: Only T20I, Rawalpindi

All matches to be broadcast in Australia on Fox Cricket and Kayo Sports