No second chance

In top-level sport, the underdog is rarely given a second chance. Pakistan's youngsters had their chance when they blew a winning position in the first Test in Colombo, and the likelihood now is that Australia will make them pay in the harshest terms. That Pakistan remain the underdogs cannot, for all their raw talent, be in dispute. They are eighth in the ICC Test Championship, with a top six that between them have less than half the Test runs of either Waugh twin.

The Australians usually have, by their standards, one duff performance per series, and Colombo was it. Even then, however, it took what Steve Waugh described as "one of the great spells of fast bowling", from Shoaib Akhtar, to put them in danger of defeat. Even allowing for their middle-order fragility, it is hard to see Australia collapsing so dramatically again, and harder still to imagine Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer not muscling at least one significant opening partnership.

Not everything is rosy in the Australian garden, however. They have to find a replacement for the impeccable Jason Gillespie, whose calf injury will keep him out of the rest of the series and possibly the first Ashes Test as well. The last time Gillespie missed a Test - against South Africa at Sydney last winter - his replacement was Australia's top wicket-taker in the match. But Stuart MacGill is not in this party, which means it is a straight choice between the seam of Andy Bichel and the offspin of Nathan Hauritz, who does not turn 21 until three days after the Test.

"The conditions will dictate who plays and that's exactly why Nathan Hauritz is here," said Trevor Hohns, Australia's chairman of selectors. "He gives us that variation with the ball going the other way to Shane Warne. If the conditions are right he'll certainly be used. No doubt about it."

But Steve Waugh, who will play his 150th Test here, suggested that Australia might play both. "Playing five bowlers and promoting Adam Gilchrist to No. 6 is an option," Waugh said. "We'll talk it over and see how it goes."

In Bichel's favour might be a mild concern over the form of Brett Lee, who if Hauritz plays could be one of only two seamers. Lee's scowling bluster has proved increasingly ineffective - since the start of last summer's Ashes series his average is a modest 38.40. He took 2 for 112 off 25 overs in Colombo, although he has retained the priceless ability to take important wickets at important times: he picked up Taufeeq Umar in the second innings at a time when the Aussies were in real trouble with Pakistan 173 for 2.

The man who is really under the cosh, however, is Mark Waugh. He was savaged in the press after the first Test, and it's a cruel irony that the safest pair of hands in cricket in the last ten years were covered in butter at a time when he needed the peripheries of his game to go as unobtrusively as possible. Scores of 55 and 0 do not represent a particularly bad return - more than his brother, more than Hayden - but as Rob Key found out, the media are not afraid to trace a correlation between poor catching and poor batting. The heat is on Junior like never before: if Australia win, and he fails, the dead-rubber third Test might be seen as a perfect opportunity to ease Darren Lehmann back into Test cricket.

The Australians do not arrive in Sharjah until 36 hours before the match, an alarmingly short time-span to pepare for a match that will be played in temperatures between 35 and 40 degrees. That heat, coupled with high humidity levels, usually affords plenty of reverse-swing to go with the spin in the pitch. Both sides as a result will probably go for two spinners, with Mohammad Sami likely to make way for Danish Kaneria. Australia do have a perceived weakness against spin, but Pakistan's best hope is surely that the Aussies will be frazzled by another white-hot spell from Shoaib.

Probable teams
Pakistan
1 Imran Nazir, 2 Taufeeq Umar, 3 Abdul Razzaq, 4 Younis Khan, 5 Misbah-ul-Haq, 6 Faisal Iqbal, 7 Rashid Latif (wk), 8 Saqlain Mushtaq, 9 Waqar Younis (capt), 10 Shoaib Akhtar, 11 Danish Kaneria.

Australia
1 Matthew Hayden, 2 Justin Langer, 3 Ricky Ponting, 4 Mark Waugh, 5 Steve Waugh (capt), 6 Damien Martyn, 7 Adam Gilchrist (wk), 8 Shane Warne, 9 Brett Lee, 10 Nathan Hauritz, 11 Glenn McGrath.

Rob Smyth is assistant editor of Wisden.com.