# Australian cricket team in the United Arab Emirates in 2018–19

The Australian cricket team toured the United Arab Emirates from September to October 2018 to play two Tests and three Twenty20 International (T20I) matches against Pakistan. Ahead of the Test series, there was a four-day practice match in Dubai.
In February 2018, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) looked at the possibility of hosting this series and New Zealand's tour to the UAE in Malaysia instead of the UAE, due to domestic Twenty20 fixture congestion in Sharjah. In May 2018, the PCB invited Australia to play the fixtures in Pakistan, but Cricket Australia said it would not allow matches to be moved there. In June 2018, the PCB and the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) agreed to play Pakistan's future matches in the UAE.
In September 2018, both Mitchell Marsh and Josh Hazlewood were appointed joint vice-captains of the Australia Test cricket team. The following month, both Mitchell Marsh and Alex Carey were appointed joint vice-captains of the Australia T20I cricket team.
During the second Test match, an extra T20I match for Australia against the United Arab Emirates was added to the tour itinerary. Australia were scheduled to play the UAE in a Twenty20 warm-up match before the T20I series against Pakistan, when the match was upgraded to a full T20I fixture. It was the first time that the UAE played a full T20I match against Australia. Australia won the one-off match by seven wickets.
Pakistan won the Test series 1–0, after the first match ended in a draw. Pakistan won the T20I series against Australia 3–0.

## Squads

| Tests | Tests | T20Is | T20Is | T20Is |
| Pakistan | Australia | Pakistan | Australia | United Arab Emirates |
| Sarfaraz Ahmed (c, wk) Mohammad Abbas Azhar Ali Hasan Ali Faheem Ashraf Bilal Asif Babar Azam Mohammad Hafeez Mir Hamza Shadab Khan Wahab Riaz Mohammad Rizwan Usman Salahuddin Asad Shafiq Yasir Shah Haris Sohail Imam-ul-Haq Fakhar Zaman | Tim Paine (c, wk) Mitchell Marsh (vc) Ashton Agar Brendan Doggett Aaron Finch Travis Head Jon Holland Usman Khawaja Marnus Labuschagne Nathan Lyon Shaun Marsh Michael Neser Matt Renshaw Peter Siddle Mitchell Starc | Sarfaraz Ahmed (c, wk) Shaheen Afridi Asif Ali Hasan Ali Faheem Ashraf Babar Azam Sahibzada Farhan Mohammad Hafeez Shadab Khan Usman Khan Shoaib Malik Waqas Maqsood Hussain Talat Imad Wasim Fakhar Zaman | Aaron Finch (c) Mitchell Marsh (vc) Alex Carey (vc, wk) Ashton Agar Nathan Coulter-Nile Chris Lynn Nathan Lyon Glenn Maxwell Ben McDermott D'Arcy Short Peter Siddle Billy Stanlake Mitchell Starc Andrew Tye Adam Zampa | Rohan Mustafa (c) Ashfaq Ahmed Qadeer Ahmed Shaiman Anwar Imran Haider Amir Hayat Amjad Khan Zahoor Khan Mohammad Naveed Fahad Nawaz Ahmed Raza Ghulam Shabber (wk) Rameez Shahzad Tahir Sultan Chirag Suri |
After Pakistan's Test squad was named, Mohammad Hafeez was later added to the team. Imam-ul-Haq fractured his finger while fielding in the first match, and was ruled out of Pakistan's squad for the second Test. Peter Siddle was added to Australia's T20I squad as cover for Mitchell Starc.

## Four-day match: Pakistan A vs Australia

* 29 September–2 October 2018 Scorecard
* Match drawn ICC Academy Ground, Dubai Umpires: Ahsan Raza (Pak) and Shozab Raza (Pak)
* Pakistan A won the toss and elected to bat.

## Test series
### 1st Test

* 7–11 October 2018 Scorecard
* Match drawn Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai Umpires: Richard Illingworth (Eng) and Richard Kettleborough (Eng) Player of the match: Usman Khawaja (Aus)
* Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat.
* Bilal Asif (Pak), Aaron Finch, Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne (Aus) all made their Test debuts.
* Mohammad Hafeez (Pak) scored his tenth century in Tests.
* Haris Sohail (Pak) scored his first century in Tests.
* Bilal Asif became the 11th bowler for Pakistan to take a five-wicket haul on debut in Tests.

### 2nd Test

* 16–20 October 2018 Scorecard
* Pakistan won by 373 runs Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi Umpires: Richard Illingworth (Eng) and Sundaram Ravi (Ind) Player of the match: Mohammad Abbas (Pak)
* Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat.
* Mir Hamza and Fakhar Zaman (Pak) both made their Test debuts.
* Mohammad Abbas became the joint-quickest fast bowler, in terms of matches played, to take 50 wickets for Pakistan in Tests (10).
* Abbas also took his first ten-wicket haul in Tests

## T20I series
### United Arab Emirates vs Australia
#### Only T20I

* 22 October 2018 14:00 Scorecard
| United Arab Emirates 117/6 (20 overs) | v | Australia 119/3 (16.1 overs) |
| Shaiman Anwar 41 (44) Nathan Coulter-Nile 2/20 (4 overs) Billy Stanlake 2/20 (4 overs) | | D'Arcy Short 68* (53) Amir Hayat 2/26 (4 overs) |
* Australia won by 7 wickets Sheikh Zayed Stadium Nursery 2, Abu Dhabi Umpires: Akbar Ali (UAE) and Iftikhar Ali (UAE) Player of the match: D'Arcy Short (Aus)
* United Arab Emirates won the toss and elected to bat.
* Ashfaq Ahmed, Chirag Suri, Amir Hayat (UAE) and Ben McDermott (Aus) all made their T20I debuts.
* Glenn Maxwell (Aus) played in his 50th T20I.

### Pakistan vs Australia
#### 1st T20I

* 24 October 2018 20:00 (N) Scorecard
| Pakistan 155/8 (20 overs) | v | Australia 89 (16.5 overs) |
| Babar Azam 68* (55) Billy Stanlake 3/21 (4 overs) | | Nathan Coulter-Nile 34 (29) Imad Wasim 3/20 (4 overs) |
* Pakistan won by 66 runs Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi Umpires: Ahsan Raza (Pak) and Shozab Raza (Pak) Player of the match: Imad Wasim (Pak)
* Australia won the toss and elected to field.

#### 2nd T20I

* 26 October 2018 20:00 (N) Scorecard
| Pakistan 147/6 (20 overs) | v | Australia 136/8 (20 overs) |
| Babar Azam 45 (44) Nathan Coulter-Nile 3/18 (3 overs) | | Glenn Maxwell 52 (37) Shadab Khan 2/30 (4 overs) |
* Pakistan won by 11 runs Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai Umpires: Ahsan Raza (Pak) and Asif Yaqoob (Pak) Player of the match: Imad Wasim (Pak)
* Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat.

#### 3rd T20I

* 28 October 2018 20:00 (N) Scorecard
| Pakistan 150/5 (20 overs) | v | Australia 117 (19.1 overs) |
| Babar Azam 50 (40) Mitchell Marsh 2/6 (1 over) | | Ben McDermott 21 (20) Shadab Khan 3/19 (4 overs) |
* Pakistan won by 33 runs Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai Umpires: Shozab Raza (Pak) and Rashid Riaz (Pak) Player of the match: Shadab Khan (Pak)
* Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat.

## In Popular Culture

An Australian docu-series - The Test was produced, following the Australian national cricket team in the aftermath of the Australian ball tampering scandal. The second episode of Season 1 featured Australia playing the 2 tests against Pakistan in the UAE.