Pakistan vs Australia 1st Test Betting Tips 04/03/2022

March 3, 2022

Zohaib Ahmed, Senior Author

The 1^st Test between Pakistan and Australia will begin from March 4 (Friday) at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium. The match is to begin at 10:30am IST.

Teams Status

Pakistan

Over the past five years, Pakistan have had a number of teams visit them but none have been as big as Australia.

The home side routinely has routinely crushed the likes of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the West Indies on own turf or even borrowed turf of the UAE but they’ve never been challenged the way Australia are expected to.

They bring a very good recent Test record into the series, having won seven of their last eight matches. However, they are without a number of their regulars. Opener Abid Ali hasn’t been cleared following a heart scare, while Hasan Ali, Faheem Ashraf and Haris Rauf are also missing.

The three men who could hold the key to Pakistan’s success are Fawad Alam, Sajid Khan and of course Shaheen Afridi.

Afridi is one the most devastating pacers around, while Fawad provides spine to Pakistan batting. Sajid is the spinner-in-chief for the series.

Australia

Not only have Australia not played in Pakistan since 1998, they have also not played any Test cricket on foreign soil in almost three years.

When they’ve played at home they’ve of course always been dominant – as recently seen too in the 4-0 mauling of England in the Ashes. But the conditions in Pakistan will be completely different to what the Aussies are used to, not to mention that several of their batters have zero or very little familiarity with conditions in South Asia.

They also haven’t been able to practice much, with their Thursday session also wiped out due to rain.

One man who does thrive in Asia is Steve Smith but he was concussed in the recent Sri Lanka series and only started facing pacers in nets two days ago.

What Do the Sportsbooks Say?

Pakistan	Draw	Australia
2.48	3.40	2.72
2.48	3.40	2.72
2.582	3.56	2.672

Pakistan are slight favourites for the 1^st Test. Parimatch and Sportsbet have Pakistan priced at 2.48, Australia at 2.72 and Draw at 3.40. Paripesa has Pakistan available for 2.582, Australia for 2.672 and Draw for 3.56.

Tipster’s Angle

Tip: Match to end in Draw @ 3.56

It rained on Thursday and the heavens are expected to open up during the final three days of the Test as well. The climate in weather is clearly rooting for tons of delays, bad light and subsequently a match with no winners, which is why we like this bet. The odds have been sourced from Paripesa.

Tip: Fawad Alam to score more than 27.5 runs @ 1.85

No other Pakistani batsman has played, toiled and toughened up on Pakistani pitches over the last 10 years than Fawad Alam, who was famously frozen out of the national fold so his only choice was to score thousands and thousands of runs in the domestic circuit. We fully expect him to put to use all the tips and tricks he has gathered. The odds for this play have been sourced from Paripesa.

Conclusion

If weather permits and ample play is possible, we would lean towards a Pakistan victory because despite missing several players, they are still far more used to local conditions for obvious reasons.

Zohaib Ahmed

20:58, 3 Mar 2022

Senior Author

Zohaib Ahmed

Senior Author

20:58, 3 Mar 2022

Zohaib Ahmed is a sports journalist whose profession is to report and edit but whose passion is to predict and bet. He’s been in the industry for more than a decade and has worked/written for various bookmakers/tipsters. His expertise is in cricket, football, MMA, boxing and basketball.