Australia’s Finch, Khawaja ready to tour Pakistan

Australian top order batsmen Aaron Finch and Usman Khawaja have stated on Friday that they are ready to tour Pakistan if the Cricket Australia board gives them the green signal.

“Obviously, whatever Cricket Australia tells us, that’ll be the big thing,” said Khawaja, Fox Sports. “We’ll leave it to the administrators. They’re pretty good at taking care of us and making sure everything’s safe." He added, “I was born in Pakistan so it won’t be too different for me but it’s still a while away and we’ve [now] got three big games against the best nation in the world”.

Similar views were expressed by Aaron Finch who said, “It would be great to get cricket back in Pakistan.” He added, “The passion their fans have got and just the amount of fans ... (there are) some pretty empty stadiums in the UAE. Anytime there’s cricket back in Pakistan, they’re swinging from the rafters to get a seat”.

“Is it the right time? I’m not sure ... that’s between the boards and the ACA [Australian Cricketers’ Association] to work through,” he further said.

Last month the Pakistan Cricket Board decided to renew talks with Cricket Australia, convincing them to play at least two one-day internationals in Karachi in 2019.