Misbah-ul-Haq to become 3rd oldest captain touring Australia; on stroke of clinching 5000 Test runs

Steve Smith-led side will be hoping to make the most of home set-up, as hosts duly consider Gabba as their stronghold.

New Delhi: As the Pakistan-Australia first Test at Brisbane is about to start from 15 December, Misbah-ul-Haq is set to become the 3rd oldest captain to visit the Aussies.

The Steve Smith-led side will be hoping to make the most of home set-up. The hosts duly consider Gabba as their stronghold, having not lost a Test match there since 1988, when they had lost to West Indies by 9 wickets.

Ahead of the day-Night encounter between the two-teams here are some interesting milestone that fans will be looking forward to this series.

Pakistan Test skipper Misbah-ul-Haq, will become the 3rd oldest Test captain to tour Australia, only after WG Grace (in 1891-92) and Wally Hammond (in 1946-47), both of whom were 43. He is now 42 years and 200 days old.

Earlier he also become the oldest cricketer in 82 years to hit century in a Test when he scored 101 runs against Australia at Abu Dhabi, where also he become the oldest skipper to achieve the milestone.

Defying age, Misbah played some brilliant cricket in the past few years and also equaled the record of Sir Viv Richards of fastest Test Century, taking only 56 balls to complete his Ton.

Misbah needed only 125 runs to join 5,000 runs club, where he will become the seventh Pakistani batsman to achieve this milestone only after Younis, Mohammad Yousuf, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Saleem Malik, Javed Miandad and Zaheer Abbas and 8th overall to reach there.

Till now Misbah has played 65 Test matches, scoring 4634 runs, at an average of 48.27 with 10 centuries and 34 half-centuries.

Along with him, Australians left-handed opener David Warner also require 95 runs to complete his 5000 runs.

Misbah has led Pakistan in 49 test matches, winning 24, losing 13 with 11 draws, also hold the record of winning 10 Test matches in a series, most by an Asian only after MS Dhoni and Sourav Ganguly. He was named the Test captain after spot-fixing scandal during England tour of 2010.

Both teams have played 59 Tests against each other out of which Australia has won 28, Pakistan has won 14 and 17 were drawn. At home, Australia look much stronger where out of 32 Tests, they have won 21, lost 4 and drawn 7.

On paper, Australians seem favourites but it will be interesting to see how Pakistanis react.