Pakistan go to Boxing Day looking for a Christmas miracle

One question has hung over this team even before the series started: whether Sarfaraz Ahmed would be rewarded for a phenomenally successful home series against New Zealand with a starting berth in conditions he has perhaps never become accustomed to or would Mohammad Rizwan, who was moderately successful in Australia on the last tour here but has suffered a dip in form overall, take his place.

Sarfaraz kept his place for the Test in Perth but looked the least comfortable of all Pakistan batters and scored 7 runs in two innings. Doubts about his keeping, too, have never abated, even during that successful New Zealand series with the bat. It is an aspect of the game the younger Rizwan has outshone Sarfaraz in for an extended period of time now.

The new-look coaching and selection committee spearheaded by Mohammad Hafeez and Wahab Riaz made some fairly last-minute calls ahead of the first Test, and while selection in Pakistan has often tended to be fluid, ESPNcricinfo understands Rizwan has received the nod to line up for the second Test as their wicketkeeper. He batted in the first innings of Pakistan's two-day warm-up game against a Victorian XI side, scoring 50 before retiring out. Sarfaraz, meanwhile managed 43 runs across two dismissals, falling to a top edge off a short delivery off the game's last ball.

It only gets messier when you get to the bowlers. For some sides, picking a bowling attack involves sifting through intense competition for places. There are too many players good enough to make it, but only so many slots to fill. To call it a headache would almost be the personification of a first-world problem. It's the sort of dilemma Australia briefly went through at the start of summer in the northern hemisphere, when they tried to fill two fast bowling slots with three high-class quicks in Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Scott Boland.

Boland continues to knock on the door, and would get into many Test sides, but the reliability and consistency of the first two will see him miss out again at his home ground on Boxing Day. In fact, Australia's attack is so replete with options they sent one of the fast bowlers, Lance Morris, back to his BBL franchise Perth Scorchers.

For Pakistan on their current tour of Australia, though, selection has been more about last man standing. Plagued by injuries and denuded of options, second and third-choice players have been thrust into the playing XI, a couple have been flown from Pakistan at short notice to provide cover, while poor form has also forced the visitors' hand.

Until now Pakistan's unavailables include Naseem Shah, Khurram Shahzad and Abrar Ahmed due to injury, Noman Ali laid low by acute appendicitis, and Haris Rauf because he declined to take part in the series altogether. And that's without saying anything about any changes required for tactical reasons; given the way the Perth Test went, there's a case for quite a few.

Imam-ul-Haq was the only other potentially unsettled member of Pakistan's top six, though a half-century in Perth has assured him of a starting spot this Tuesday at the MCG. It is at the other end of the side that Pakistan's thought processes are muddled, and their options scarce. An injury to Abrar meant they decided to go without a specialist spinner in Perth, a bowling combination that has almost never seen a visiting side take 20 wickets in the city.

Pakistan are understood to be against fielding a similar line-up of three right-arm fast bowlers with a low ceiling in terms of pace. Shahzad is out with an injury anyway, and Faheem Ashraf's ordinary showing in the first Test means he's expected to miss out. Though he didn't contribute with the bat, replacing him with a bowler does lengthen the tail for a side that got bundled out for 89 in 30.2 overs in their most recent innings.

Shorn of other all-round options, and keeping in mind Pakistan's reluctance to go in with an all-seam attack once more, one thing becomes clear: the return of Sajid Khan. Though he was generally ineffectual against Australia on surfaces in Pakistan last year, and even a young Victorian side had little trouble taking him on at the Junction Oval, he comes in merely by process of elimination. Abrar continues to nurse an injury, and Noman's got appendicitis. Mohammad Nawaz will arrive too late to be a factor for Melbourne, and that means Sajid's all Pakistan have got.

Pakistan also have a decision to make on the identity of the third fast bowler, and this is where the uncertainty is at its greatest. Aamer Jamal's impressive debut makes him a certainty to line up alongside Shaheen Shah Afridi, but which of Hasan Ali, Mir Hamza and Mohammad Wasim Jnr gets the nod remains an open question. Wasim Jnr is the quickest of the three, and with express pace in exceedingly short supply for Pakistan, it gives him an edge. It helped that he was the most economical of Pakistan's bowlers during the tour game; while Hamza and Hasan went at 5.30 and 4.41 respectively, Wasim only allowed 16 runs in seven overs.

Christmas Day is something of a family event at the MCG, with the Australian players coming out for a light training hit, their loved ones in tow, young kids running about the ground. And though it doesn't take the same cultural prominence in Pakistan, it's them who seem to need a miracle. For Hafeez and Shan Masood, it's thinking caps rather than festive hats as they agonise over selecting a squad that gives them the best chance of silencing the biggest crowd in Test cricket: Boxing Day at the 'G.