Pakistan national cricket team is set to take on Victoria XI in a two-day practice match ahead of the second Test of the three-match series against Australia national cricket team. Pakistan, led by Shan Masood, is scheduled to play the second Test against the Australians at the Melbourne Cricket Ground from December 26.

Pakistan’s match against Victoria XI will be held at the Junction Oval in Melbourne on December 22 and 23. This is not the Men in Green’s first practice match as they also participated in a tour match against the Prime Minister’s XI. at the Manuka Oval, Canberra, ahead of the opening clash of the series.

The practice match will provide much-needed help to the Pakistan national cricket team, who faced an absolute drubbing at the hands of the Australia national cricket team in the first Test at the Perth Stadium.

Pakistan were outplayed in all three departments of the game and faced a humiliating loss of 360 runs to continue their losing streak on Australian soil in the purest format of the game.

The Shan Masood-led team was given a target of 450 runs to chase in the Perth Test. They showed an extremely poor performance and were bowled out for 89 runs in 30.2 overs, with Saud Shakeel being the top bowler with 24 runs off 51 balls to his name.

This defeat would surely have damaged the visitors’ confidence and they would look to bounce back strongly.

We wanted to have more practice: Mohammad Hafeez, Pakistan head coach

Speaking after the first Test loss, Pakistan head coach Mohammad Hafeez revealed that originally the two-day practice match against the Peter Handscomb-led Victoria XI was not part of their schedule, but they requested Cricket Australia a game because they needed more. practice.

“That [the Victoria tour game] It was something extra that we added to the schedule because it wasn’t there before,” Pakistan head coach Mohammad Hafeez said after the Test, as quoted by ESPNCricinfo.

“We wanted to have more practice instead of just a scrimmage. This had first-class status, so we couldn’t give all players a chance to feel it. That’s the reason we wanted to have this practice game, so more guys could get a feel for the game scenario; We felt it would work well. We will definitely plan accordingly. “All players should take advantage of those two days to become more familiar with the situations and conditions.”

Mohammad Hafeez had earlier criticized Cricket Australia for not providing them with a good, typical Australian track for the practice match against the Prime Minister’s XI at the Manuka Oval, Canberra.

However, he is optimistic about getting a better pitch this time, which will be very similar to the pitch that will be used for the match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

“The conditions we get fall under the domain of Cricket Australia,” he said. “We have requested conditions similar to the Test match so that our players can take advantage of these conditions.

“This game was not part of the tour, but I wanted our players to practice in match scenario style. We thank CA for accepting our request and providing us with this service. “We will try to learn from this as effectively as possible.”