Inglis felt pressure from 'shot clock' in captaincy debut

Newly appointed Australia white-ball skipper Josh Inglis admits he found the pressure exerted by the 'shot clock' introduced to speed up limited-overs cricket perhaps the most daunting part of his captaincy initiation.

While overseeing an eight-wicket loss to Pakistan at Perth Stadium, which handed the visitors their first ODI series win in Australia in 22 years, made for a disappointing leadership debut, Inglis almost ran afoul of the recently introduced playing condition.

Under measures brought in by the International Cricket Council on trial basis a year ago and formally adopted last March, fielding teams must be ready to begin an over within 60 seconds of the previous over ending.

Captains of teams that take too long to restart the game get two warnings from on-field umpires before incurring a five-run penalty for every subsequent infringement.

With a modest total of just 140 to defend and in his first international match as skipper compounded by a new-look bowling attack and his role as wicketkeeper, Inglis copped two warnings early in Australia's fielding innings.

While he avoided the five-run penalty, which would have further hastened Pakistan's victory achieved with 139 balls to spare, Inglis knows he'll need to improve in the three-match T20 series against the same opponent starting Thursday.

"Probably just the time between the overs," Inglis said when asked what he found the toughest aspect of captaincy in the absence of regular white-ball skippers Pat Cummins (Test preparation) and Mitchell Marsh (paternity leave).

"There's that shot clock now with a minute and obviously with me being a 'keeper, it's pretty difficult to have a conversation with the bowler and then get to my mark.

"And if we've got to make an adjustment to the field, then to do that.

"So I got two warnings pretty early, so we had to be a bit sharper with that and we'll get quicker as I go along and learn into the role.

"(It was) a bit more stressful than just carrying the gloves, but it was really good.

'It was a really cool experience and nice to be able to do it here in Perth, but ultimately disappointed with the result."

Pakistan's stunning comeback after a narrow loss in the opening ODI at the MCG last Monday was built upon the quality fast bowling of their four-pronged pace attack, and the contributions of openers Abdullah Shafique and Saim Ayub in the final two games.

But Shaheen Shah Afridi, a key member of that quartet of quicks, identified the input of their similarly inexperienced skipper Muhammad Rizwan as crucial to his team's come-from-behind triumph.

Rizwan had not led Pakistan in white-ball cricket until appointed to take the helm for the ODIs and the upcoming three-match T20I series in Australia, which means he boasted just two games more leadership experience than Inglis heading into today's decider.

But the fellow wicketkeeper's vast international experience – 35 Tests and 180 limited-overs internationals compared to Inglis' 26 ODIs and as many T20Is – saw him handle Pakistan's famously mercurial playing stocks with aplomb.

"Our skipper 'Rizzy' (Rizwan) has always said go for the attack," Shaheen said after claiming 3-32 today despite nursing a sore left thumb damaged when trying to stop a scorching return from the boundary.

"He's an aggressive player, and the way he's doing his captaincy in the last three games, he was fantastic, and he supported every player and gave 100 per cent support to the bowlers.

"We prepared really well for the series, and with the new series everyone is so excited and he's so attacking.

"We're just trying to do the same things, and the process we follow is what we practice in the nets and nothing more special."

Inglis, who had begun an auspicious day by being named in Australia's 13-man squad for the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test series against India, conceded it had been his team's sub-par top-order batting that proved the difference in the ODI campaign.

No Australia batter managed to post a score of 50 or more across all three games, the first time that's happened in the country's 53-year history of bilateral one-day series comprising three or more matches.

By contrast, Pakistan openers Shafique and Ayub negotiated challenging new-ball spells from Australia's first-choice quicks Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood at Adelaide and auxiliary attack Spencer Johnson, Marcus Stoinis, Sean Abbott and Lance Morris in Perth to set up two clinical run chases.

"I just think games two and three we didn't get enough runs on the board and our whole batting line-up just didn't get going at all throughout the series," Inglis said.

"Credit to Pakistan, I thought they bowled outstanding.

"They've got four very good quick bowlers and they put pressure on us throughout and made it really tough.

'We didn't get any rhythm into our batting, we didn't have any partnerships of note really.

'It's pretty tough to win games of one-day cricket when no one gets past 50."

Australia v Pakistan limited-overs series 2024

Australia ODI squad: Pat Cummins (c - first two matches), Josh Inglis, (c - third match), Sean Abbott, Xavier Bartlett (third match only), Cooper Connolly, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Aaron Hardie, Josh Hazlewood (second match only), Spencer Johnson (third match only), Marnus Labuschagne (first two matches only), Glenn Maxwell, Lance Morris, Josh Philippe (third match only), Matthew Short, Steve Smith (first two matches only), Mitchell Starc (first two matches only), Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa

Pakistan ODI squad: Muhammad Rizwan, Aamer Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Agha Salman, Arafat Minhas, Babar Azam, Faisal Akram, Haris Rauf, Haseebullah Khan, Irfan Khan, Kamran Ghulam, Mohammad Hasnain, Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Shaheen Shah Afridi

November 4: Australia won by two wickets

November 8: Pakistan won by nine wickets

November 10: Pakistan won by eight wickets

Australia T20 squad: Josh Inglis (c), Sean Abbott, Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Tim David, Nathan Ellis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Aaron Hardie, Spencer Johnson, Glenn Maxwell, Matthew Short, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa

Pakistan T20 squad: Muhammad Rizwan (c), Abbas Afridi, Agha Salman, Arafat Minhas, Babar Azam, Haris Rauf, Haseebullah Khan, Irfan Khan, Jahandad Khan, Naseem Shah, Omair Yousuf, Sahibzada Farhan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Sufiyan Muqeem, Usman Khan.

November 14: Gabba, 7.00pm AEDT

November 16: SCG: 7.00pm AEDT

November 18: Bellerive Oval, Hobart, 7.00pm AEDT

All matches live and exclusive on Fox Cricket and Kayo Sports