While Pakistan's preparation on the recent tour seemed adequate—they had practice matches on bouncy wickets in Perth and the batsmen trained to cope with short-pitched bowling—they forgot one important ingredient, captaincy. Pakistan's captaincy on the last three tours of Australia has been abysmal. Rarely have they bowled Australia out for anything like a reasonable first innings score and when they did—at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 2010—Mohammad Yousuf then orchestrated the worst captaincy possible to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

To exacerbate the problem, Misbah-ul-Haq, who presided over an Australian run feast on the 2016-17 tour, was appointed coach of the recent tour. Judging by the field placings set by Azhar Ali, the 2019-20 captain, he had read thoroughly—from cover to cover—Misbah's Australian tour play book.
Captaincy in Australia is unlike other countries. The pitches certainly have extra bounce but if good batsmen are set they can be hard to remove and it requires a dose of positive imagination to bring about their downfall.