Mitchell Starc says Australia 'surprised at the lower pace of the Pakistan bowlers' in ongoing Test series

Australia pacer Mitchell Starc is surprised at the lower pace of the touring Pakistan team. Notably, pace has been the characteristic of the Pak bowling line-up over the years but this time around it hasn't been there for the Asian bowlers.

"I think everyone was slightly surprised at the lower pace of the Pakistan bowlers, when you're generally used to some guys getting in the 150s [kph]," Starc said two days before the Boxing Day Test while speaking to media at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).

The pacer although agreed that pace isn't 'be all and end all' but acknowledged that it 'certainly plays a part and can help.'

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Pakistan, which lost the first Test by 360 runs, had played Shaheen Afridi, Aamer Jamal and Khurram Shahzad as Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf were not available. While Naseem is in rehab after injury sustained during the Asia Cup earlier this year, Rauf made himself unavailable to play in Australia's domestic T20 tournament Big Bash League (BBL).

Their replacements, Jamal and Shahzad were good but the quickest as they constantly hit the speeds till late 130s only.

Starc, meanwhile, also acknowledged that the extra pace wouldn't be quite as crucial at the MCG. "Case in point, you look at Scotty Boland who can bowl good wheels, but he's not at your top end of pace bowlers," he said. "But he generates a lot of sideways movement here in Melbourne, obviously being his home ground. He's done it for a long time and we saw that obviously against England, where every ball he bowled could have been a wicket. So I don't think that pace is the be all and end all. Certainly, for our attack we all complement each other really well by doing things very differently."

Pakistan are currently trailing 0-1 in the three Test series with the third Test scheduled to be played from January 3 after the Boxing Day Test.