Cricket: Unkowns hold the key for Pakistan

By the time Pakistan head away from this country, New Zealand audiences will have come to know them well.

They were here a year ago for three tests - officially Pakistan were the hosts, as the series was to have been played there before the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team in March 2009 put an end to international tours there for the foreseeable future.

One leg of the trip is done, 2-1 to New Zealand in the T20s, now for the tests.

Pakistan's hopes rest on several key players. Four who were not here last summer have important roles.

Azhar Ali came into the Pakistan side in the middle of last year but has made a solid start to his test career. The 25-year-old from Lahore will bat at No 3 and has already got a test average of 37.71 from eight matches.

A maiden hundred is yet to come but he's peeled off five half centuries, and his last four test innings produced 56, 63, 90 and 28 against South Africa in the United Arab Emirates.

Steady and more about accumulation rather than flash and dash, Azhar could be one of the rocks of Pakistan's batting.
Younis Khan captained Pakistan to the world T20 title in 2009. Then he was gone for months, a victim of internal politics, but is back and how the Pakistanis need him.

His test record speaks loud and clear: 65 tests, 5440 runs at 50.37, with 17 hundreds, including a triple ton against Sri Lanka two years ago. He's fifth alltime test runscorer for his country and only Javed Miandad and Mohammad Yousuf have a better average.

Younis hails from the North-West Frontier region and is a strongminded and fearless competitor.

Being Pakistan's wicketkeeper has been a poisoned chalice of late. Kamran Akmal was under the spotlight during the fixing allegations of the past few months and was ruled out of this tour by Pakistan's board.

Then Zulqarnain Haider walked out of the series against South Africa late last year and re-emerged in London, claiming he'd been leaned on to help fix games.

Now Adnan Akmal, younger brother of Kamran, older brother of fellow tourist Umar, is wearing the big gloves.

He's only played two tests, against South Africa a couple of months ago, but looks tidy and could be nuisance value with the bat, on the evidence of this week's three-day game in Whangarei.

The keeper is a key figure to a team's operation. If Akmal can grasp the nettle, hold his catches, make his runs at No 7, Pakistan will be better for that.

Of the bowlers, Wahab Riaz could be among the more challenging. A lively left armer, Riaz was briefly questioned during the spot-fixing scandal in England last year before being cleared.

He took five for 63 on debut against England at the Oval and looks like he could be a handful for the New Zealand batsmen. David Leggat