Not just Naseem, Australia are prepared for 'all of them' - Paine

[Ulquiorra]

 

Naseem was quick and hostile in the tour match © Getty

With Naseem Shah confirmed to debut in Brisbane, the build-up to Australia's first Test this summer feels a little more effervescent than usual. All of 16 years of age and capable of bowling real fast, Naseem shot to fame in Pakistan's practice match against Australia A, where bowling quick and hostile he troubled the batsmen, albeit without much reward. Now on the verge of a Test cap, how are the opposition anticipating Naseem?

Just like the rest of the Pakistan bowling attack, Australia captain Tim Paine has revealed.

Paine no doubt stands impressed with this "exciting talent" and with Pakistan's ability to find pacers at such a young age, but he's not point-focusing his preparations on Naseem alone. He doesn't want to "be surprised" by their pacers and spinners alike. Not even their batters.

"We're prepared for all of them," Paine said on the eve of the first Test in Brisbane. "We've had a really good look at them. That's the thing with Pakistan. They've got a lot of different options, a lot of skill and by the looks of it a fair bit of pace. We've made sure that when we go out tomorrow, we've looked at enough possible footage as we can of their pace attack and their batters. What we don't want to do is go out there at some stage tomorrow and be surprised by something we see, whether that's their spinner, their quicks or their batsmen.

"We've done our research on them, we've obviously spoken to a lot of the guys in the Australia A team who have faced them first hand. We've had other guys in the team who have faced them before and some of them are unknown. We've done our work on all of them."

Paine said that it was unusual for him to play against 16-year-olds in Test cricket but pointed to how good players play on basis of merit, not age.

"I played against a few [16-year-olds] last week in club cricket. Certainly at Test level it's a bit unusual but by the looks of him he looks a really exciting talent. Pakistan have got a knack of finding these young fast bowlers. He looks like another one that's going to add to that rich history of fast bowlers they seem to produce," he said.

"I haven't been to a selection meeting yet where they said, 'no we ain't pick him because he's 16'. If he's in your best bowlers he's in your best bowlers regardless of age and that goes the other way as well. You can be 35 and be in the best team, there's certainly no age limit."

Yasir Shah is another bowler Australia are wary of. Steve Smith was seen facing a lot of leg spin in the nets in the lead-up to this Test, given how he's been troubled by it before. But Yasir Shah had a terrible time in Australia the last time around, when David Warner and Smith took a liking to him, and the duo seem to have shared secrets with the rest of the team.

"They've shared a bit on him," Paine said of Warner and Smith. "I won't tell you exactly what it was, we don't want to tell him what they've picked up. What we know about Yasir is he's a quality bowler. I heard the other day he was the fastest Test bowler to 200 wickets. He's not the first bowler to come to Australia and struggle once, I don't think we're going to be judging him off a couple of Test matches he played here three or four years ago. We know how good he is. We know the threat that he is.

"We're really lucky that we've had Steve and David who have played against him a lot, had some success against him and they've been able to share what worked for them against him. I'm expecting him to be a different bowler than he was last time around. He's had some time to think about it and prepare for this series and the conditions he's going to get. I think he would have learnt a lot from last time he was here and as I said, we're expecting the very best of him."