Bartlett aims to take leaf out of Pakistan's pace playbook

Australia's new-look bowling attack will be out to emulate Pakistan's pace success when the T20 international series begins in Brisbane on Thursday.

Pakistan won their first ODI series in Australia in 22 years when they thumped the hosts by eight wickets on Sunday on the back of a dominant performance from their four-pronged pace attack.

Haris Rauf took 10 wickets for the series, with Shaheen Shah Afridi (eight wickets), Naseem Shah (five) and Mohammad Hasnain (three) all looking threatening throughout.

Pakistan's fast bowlers took 26 wickets in the series while Australia's took only eight.

The tourists were able to play their quicks unchanged in all three matches but the hosts rung the changes with Test stars Pat Cummins, Mitch Starc and Josh Hazlewood resting up for the impending Border-Gavaskar Trophy after the second ODI.

Those changes brought Spencer Johnson, Lance Morris, Sean Abbott and allrounder Marcus Stoinis into the side, with Xavier Barlett watching from the sidelines after coming into Australia's ODI squad in a non-playing role for the second match in Adelaide.  

Bartlett, along with Tasmania's Nathan Ellis, come into Australia's squad proper for the T20 series, and says Pakistan's brilliance with the ball hasn't been lost on the home side.

"They've been amazing," Bartlett told reporters at the Gabba on Tuesday.

"The last two games they've only used four bowlers. (They're bowling) 140 from both ends for the whole game. It's been pretty exciting to watch.

"They bowled really great lengths and they were just really attacking … they might go for a few more runs at times but the lengths they've bowled have been really good and (I'll) hopefully look to emulate that.

"We'll take a leaf out of their book for this series."

If Bartlett is named for the series opener as expected, it will be his first international match in front of his home crowd.

Under the blooming jacaranda trees at the Gabba's outdoor nets, the Queenslander bowled for around 45 minutes at full tilt in a great sign for Australia.

Barlett hasn't played a professional match since injuring his side in Southampton in September, but turned out for his club side Gold Coast at the start of the month.

In front of a slew of families and family of whom he says he has sorted tickets, Bartlett could share the new ball with Brisbane Heat teammate Spencer Johnson.

The pairing were unstoppable in the Big Bash League last season, finishing as the top two wicket-takers in the competition as the Heat won the title.

And although both have dealt with their own side strains in recent, the prospect of the two fast men sharing the field for the first time since the BBL final is real.

"I love bowling with Spencer," Bartlett said.  

"He's someone who bowls left arm first and foremost, but bowls 150 (kmph), swings it, he's pretty much the perfect package.

"Hopefully he can complement me at the other end and really looking forward to getting out there again with him."

Australia v Pakistan T20Is 2024

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

Australia T20 squad: Josh Inglis (c), Sean Abbott, Xavier Bartlett, Tim David, Nathan Ellis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Aaron Hardie, Spencer Johnson, Glenn Maxwell, Josh Philippe, 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.