Melbourne, Australia

Pakistan has replaced wicketkeeper Sarfaraz Ahmed with Mohammad Rizwan for the Boxing Day Test against Australia. The decision comes after Sarfaraz's poor run in the first Test in Perth where he managed just seven runs across two innings as Pak lost by 360 runs.

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Sarfaraz, who saw a bit of renewal of his red-ball career after brilliant knocks against New Zealand earlier this year, albeit at home, was visibly uncomfortable against the pace in Perth. His selection raised a few eyes but Pak's newly appointed skipper Shan Masood defended the selection.

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"I wouldn't think that that one change would have changed the whole course of the game," Masood said at the press conference ahead of the Boxing Day Test. "The reason to play Sarfaraz was pretty much the same [as the reason to play Aamer Jamal and Khurram Shahzad]. People go back to stats and Rizwan averages very well in SENA. We know what Rizwan has done but we gave Sarfaraz the benefit because he averaged 56.50 on his last tour here in 2016."

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"Rizwan just came from the World Cup, a lot of white-ball cricket. And he also had a gap in red-ball cricket since Sarfaraz took over from him for the New Zealand series. Sarfaraz had an outstanding performance there and Rizwan hadn't played a lot of red-ball cricket. So there was a method to it. He's been there, he played red-ball cricket. Karachi had a very good season where he was the tournament's MVP, and that allowed us to get a player like Rizwan into shape. If I had it my way, I'd ideally like both to play but that's not possible. Now we think Rizwan is ready and we can give Saifi that little bit of break to recuperate and come back," he added.

Pakistan have already been marred by multiple injuries as they look to equal the Test series.