Australia vs Pakistan ODI 2: Will Australia seal the series win

Australia won both the Test and the ODI series,and now is on the brink of repeating history.

Confident Australia will aim to seal the series.

In the first ODI, Australia having bat first, gave a target of 314 runs to be chased. In response, Pakistan managed to reach only 225 on the scoreboard, thereby losing the match by 88 runs. Apart from gaining 10 Super League Points, Aaron Finch led Australia. They must have gained a lot of confidence from their first match win as they were playing without many of their key players. New team talents like Travis Head, Ben McDermott, Cameron Green, and Mitchell Swepson all made the best of the opportunity they received. They made an enormous contribution with their performance to help Australia take the lead in the ODI series. 

Must win the game for Pakistan

On the other hand, Pakistan was also playing with a few of their key players missing but was expected to show a better character display on their home ground. They could not execute their decision to bowl first as Australia scored 300-plus runs and later failed terribly while chasing. Only Imam-ul-Haq and Babar Azam did approach the chase aggressively and went on to make their respective century and half-century. The rest of the team collapsed to the counter-attack of the bowlers being led by Adam Zampa, who played a major role in demolishing the hosts' batting lineup.

Predicted Probable XI

Pakistan may look to shuffle their deck and reassess their squad following their performance in the first match.

Pakistan: Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Haris Rauf, Zahid Mahmood

With not many options available to Australia, they might stick with their same playing XI

Australia: Travis Head, Aaron Finch (c), Ben McDermott, Marnus Labuschagne, Marcus Stoinis, Cameron Green, Alex Carey (wk), Sean Abbott, Nathan Ellis, Adam Zampa, Mitchell Swepson

Pitch Report

Pitch at Lahore is a balanced and flat track. Batters will hardly find themselves in any trouble in the first half. The surface also aids spinners as the ball tends to hold a bit on it. Overall a good surface for both batters and bowlers depends on who can dig a dominating start.

After the defeat in the first ODI, Pakistan will look to bounce back and level the series by 1-1. They are expected to go with their full-strength side and take the series to the decider. Whereas Australia will like to continue their winning momentum by displaying their all-rounding performance from the 1st ODI and outplaying the host to seal the series win by 2-0.