Players to watch in Pakistan-Australia Test series

Pakistan will start their first Test series at home against Australia in 24 years in Rawalpindi on Friday under heavy security with the tourists on unfamiliar turf. Here's a look at three players from each side to watch as the long-awaited and potentially fascinating three-Test battle unfolds. Started his career as a leg-spinning all-rounder against Pakistan at Lord's in 2010 before developing into one of the most complete batters in international cricket, Steve Smith's average of 59.87 is unsurpassed by any active Test player and he has proved his adaptability by scoring 1,200 runs in 13 Tests on slow, turning sub-continent wickets. Australia will look to Smith -- who by his own lofty standards had a lean series against England with 244 runs at 30.50 and a top score of 93 -- to anchor their batting against a formidable Pakistan attack on pitches alien to the tourists. Likely to be the key to winning matches on the slow and turning pitches of Pakistan.

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Ashes-winning Australia will face unfamiliar conditions, heavy security and unpredictable, but talented, opponents when they begin their first Test in Pakistan for 24 years on Friday.

With 415 Test victims, Nathan Lyon is Australia's greatest off-spinner and as a slow bowler his tally for his country is only bettered by leg-spinner Shane Warne, who took 708 wickets. Lyon, who has taken 95 wickets in 19 Tests in Asia, has a knack of understanding how pitches behave and subtly change over the course of a five-day match, having worked as a curator in his early days of the career. The world's top-ranked batsman Marnus Labuschagne shot to prominence when he replaced Steve Smith as concussion substitute