Babar terms Pakistan's pace attack for Australia T20s 'dependable'.

Byline: Mohammad Yaqoob

LAHORE -- While acknowledging that competing against Australia on their soil has always been a challenging task, newly-appoiAnted Twenty20 captain Babar Azam on Friday said PakisAtan's pace bowling departAment for the forthcoming tour Down Under is strong and dependable.

The Pakistan squad is set to leave for what is expected to be an arduous tour of Australia on Saturday to play three T20 Internationals followed by a two-Test series. The tourists will play the T20 internationals in Sydney (Nov 3), Canberra (Nov 5) and Perth (Nov 8). The Tests will be staged in Brisbane (Nov 21-25) and Adelaide (Nov 29-Dec 3).

While Babar will lead Pakistan in the T20 series, experienced batsman Azhar Ali will captain the Test side in place of Sarfraz Ahmed who was sacked after PakisAtan's humiliating T20 series whitewash at the hands of an inexperienced Sri Lanka in Lahore earlier this month.

'The experienced trio of Mohammad Amir, Wahab Riaz and the comeback of Mohammad Irfan with youngster Musa Khan make Pakistan's fast bowling department strong and dependable [in T20s],' Babar said at the press conference on the eve of the team's departure for Australia

'Playing against Australia in Australia has always been a challenging task. However, we will try our best to give our best and not to repeat the mistakes which we committed against Sri Lanka [in the T20 home series],' the 25-year-old world's top-ranked T20 batsman added.

'It was not Sri Lanka's C team [that beat Pakistan], it was their national team. It was a young team and we have learned a lot from that series.'

The prolific right-hander said Pakistan batsmen have the knowledge how to play on Aussie tracks.

'Yes pitches in Australia are bouncy. But most of us have played there; I toured with the senior team in 2016 and earlier in 2012 I had toured as the skipper of Pakistan U-19 squad. So we have the knowledge how to play on those pitches,' he said.

'The target of every team is always to win every series and we are also going with the same target. However, to achieve this aim every member of the squad has to give his 100 per cent and play aggressive cricket the Australians do,' Babar, who has scored 1,201 runs at an excellent average of 49.61 in 33 T20 Internationals, stated.

The captain said he would advise his players to just play positive cricket and enjoy their game without taking pressure on the demanding Australia tour.

'We should have self-belief. On my part as captain, I...