Pakistan captain Shan Masood is determined not to become another visiting captain chewed up and spat out by the daunting task of touring Australia.
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The stylish batter was surprised to get the job only three weeks ago and is already getting set to face the buzzsaw that is the world Test champion Australians on foreign soil.
Masood could not have played better carving a chanceless 201 not out against the Prime Minister's XI this week in Canberra, looking determined to lead from the front ahead of a three-Test series few give Pakistan a chance of being competitive in.
Former South Africa captain Dean Elgar completely failed to handle the pressures in last summer's tour of Australia, making just 56 runs in six innings before losing the job soon after.
Even champion England bat Joe Root struggled in his side's 4-1 Ashes thumping in Australia two years ago, handing the reins to Ben Stokes less than a year later.
Masood said only a machine-like, "step-by-step" attitude could keep Pakistan close to the powerful locals.
"The focus is on the bigger picture and how we want to play cricket, and obviously ticking boxes that are mandatory in Test cricket, and a certain way to go about it," he told reporters.
"So our focus is on how we play our cricket, whatever we can control, are we doing that, are we maintaining standards?
"(It's) a lot of honest and serious questions that we're asking of ourselves as a side that really wants to go forward and that has a lot of serious cricketers that can be world class."
Masood reflected on Pakistan's most recent trip to Australia, a 2-0 series loss where their top-order batters routinely failed and often couldn't turn decent starts into big scores.
He pointed to his own scores that summer - 27, 42, 19 and 68 - as exactly what his troops can't do against Australia's loaded bowling contingent.
"We're playing probably the best bowling attack in Test cricket, and they all offer different challenges in different phases of the game," he said.
"We've been lucky we have played them recently ... they bowled really well and a lot of the batsmen did get in and did get starts, but we didn't really go big.
"Those would be things we'd want to improve ... we're well aware of all their plans, and we're going to try and sort of negate whatever they bring to the table."
Australian Associated Press
