Aussies and Pakistan return to scene of epic showdown

The last time Pakistan began a Test tour down under with the opening encounter staged in Perth, the pre-game narrative also revolved around a destructive left-handed Australia opener and his impending battle with a fearsome fast-bowling rival.

But while the showdown between David Warner – in his farewell campaign as a Test cricketer – and Pakistan's left-arm speedster Shaheen Shah Afridi is understandably tipped to be box office, it doesn't quite match the bristling antipathy that existed between Matthew Hayden and Shoaib Akhtar almost 20 years ago.

That conflict had been simmering for two years prior to the series opener at the WACA Ground in 2004, dating back to the three Tests that had been scheduled to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their arrival into international cricket in 1952.

However, due to security issues in Pakistan, the golden jubilee Tests were hastily moved offshore with the first played in the Sri Lanka capital Colombo and the last two moved to sweltering Sharjah where daytime temperatures peaked around 50C in October 2002.

Shoaib was already regarded the world's fastest bowler, but his mastery of reverse swing in the Colombo Test – where he destroyed Australia's star-strewn middle-order in a memorable second innings spell that yielded 5-5 from 15 balls – meant he was also vying for the title of most potent.

Hayden was also at the peak of his powers having reinvented himself as a Test opener on Australia's tour to India a year prior and, when the series moved to Sharjah, he took it upon himself to blunt Pakistan's pace weapon in a brazen show of brinkmanship.

After Pakistan were knocked over for 59 on day one of that Test, Hayden defied the oppressive heat and Shoaib's similarly blistering pace by repeatedly pulling out of his batting stance as his foe charged in, forcing the increasingly angry quick to trudge back to the top of his lengthy run-up.

Hayden further incited Shoaib who threw all his dwindling energy into a bouncer that clocked the opener on the helmet, but the blow brought nothing more than a disdainful smile from the batter.

Not only did Pakistan lose that Test by an innings inside two days, Hayden's extraordinary 119 proved more than his opponents could manage in two completed trips to the crease (59 and 53) while Shoaib limped off after 14 soul-destroying overs and out of the series.

By the time the pair were set to resume their war two years hence, Hayden had claimed a then world record score of 380 on his previous visit to the WACA Ground (against Zimbabwe in 2003) while Shoaib's rock star status was in danger of overshadowing his on-field feats.

Accompanied by an Australia-based PR manager, Shoaib spent the weeks in Perth prior to the first Test posing for photos atop a high-octane motorcycle at a city beach while his teammates prepared for what awaited on the notoriously bouncy WACA Ground pitch by facing tennis balls fired from bowling machines at the venue's indoor nets.

Rather than travel to and from training sessions aboard the team bus, Shoaib would arrive with his PR sidekick in a luxury convertible, and he played a minimal role in Pakistan's handful of warm-up games that included a 10-run loss to a WA Second XI captained by future Test batter Adam Voges.

At the time, the Rawalpindi Express was also involved in a contract dispute with the Pakistan Cricket Board because that deal forced him to provide endorsements at odds with deals he held with personal sponsors.

Shoaib's theatrics stretched the fabric of team morale and tested the patience of then coach Bob Woolmer, who publicly advised his tearaway quick to cut down his extravagant run-up to bolster his questionable stamina and boost Pakistan's ailing over rate.

"Even a Ferrari sometimes needs to stop after two laps for a workshop," Shoaib responded to calls from his coach to reduce his run-up during the 2004-05 series against Australia.

"Can a plane take off without a run-up? No, so I've got to take the run.

"It's how I generate my pace and everything flows into the right action. I'm not going to cut down."

So when Pakistan skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq won the toss in the series opener at Perth, and opted to unleash his speed demon at Australia opening pair Hayden and Justin Langer, the stage was set for one of the most eagerly awaited duels of recent times.

The battle proved as brief as it was one-sided, with Shoaib firing an Exocet into Hayden's pads that saw the left-hander adjudged lbw for four with his demise welcomed by the fired-up fast bowler who pointed both index fingers in the direction of the dressing room not once, but three times.

That gesture cost Shoaib 40 per cent of his match fee at a post-match code of conduct hearing, but it also spurred the then-29-year-old to his first five-wicket Test haul on Australia soil.

Unfortunately, as had been the case at Colombo two years earlier, his heroics came amid a losing cause as the immovable proved more than a match for the incandescent, with Langer the last man out having scored 191 in Australia's hefty total of 381.

It wasn't the endurance issues Woolmer had pointedly raised but rather a shoulder injury caused by a fielding mishap that saw Shoaib restricted to just six overs in Pakistan's second innings as Australia – courtesy of a typically elegant Damien Martyn century – stretched their overall lead beyond 550.

And whereas pure speed proved most effective on day one, it was the nagging control of 34-year-old Glenn McGrath – in his first home summer since ankle surgery that had sidelined him for a year – that decided the contest.

McGrath's 8-24 in Pakistan's second innings would remain his career-best return and the second-best by an Australia bowler in Tests after Arthur Mailey's 9-121 in the 1920-21 Ashes summer.

It also consigned Pakistan to a fifth thumping loss from as many Test efforts in Perth, with two of those (1983-84 and 1999-00) by an innings as well as defeats by 491 runs (2004-05) and 286 (1981-82) and by seven wickets on their first visit to the WA capital in 1978-79.

A switch of venue to the Perth Stadium for this summer's three-Test NRMA Insurance battle might provide the change of fortune needed for Pakistan in their first Test outing in the west for 19 seasons.

But of greater consequence will be Shaheen's capacity to go one better than Shoaib and remove both of Australia's experienced left-handed openers (Warner and Usman Khawaja) cheaply, while Australia will be looking to their relentless seamers to potentially replicate McGrath's record-breaking deeds.

NRMA Insurance Test series v Pakistan

Prime Minister's XI v Pakistan XI: December 6-9, Manuka Oval (10.30am AEDT)

First Test: December 14-18, Perth Stadium (1.20pm AEDT)

Second Test: December 26-30, MCG (10.30am AEDT)

Third Test: January 3-7, SCG (10.30am AEDT)

Australia squad: (first Test only) Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Lance Morris, Steve Smith, Mitch Starc, David Warner

Pakistan squad: Shan Masood (c), Aamir Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Khurram Shahzad, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Noman Ali, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Saud Shakeel and Shaheen Shah Afridi