It's a New Year's Test of stark contrasts: Pakistan are scratching to come up with a team while Australia are blessed with options after naming a 13-man squad for the final Sydney cricket Test getting under way on Sunday.

Injuries and illness have compounded Pakistan's selection problems after losing their three-match series in Melbourne by nine wickets last Wednesday on top of their 491-run debacle in the first

Perth Test.

The Pakistanis, who haven't beaten Australia for 11 Tests since winning by 74 runs here a decade ago, have to find replacements for fast bowler Mohammad Sami (heel) and all-rounder Shoaib Malik (split webbing), while fitness doubts exist over captain Inzamamul Haq (back) and Abdul Razzaq (virus).

Australia underlined their bulging depth of playing talent by adding Sydney Cricket Ground spin specialist Stuart MacGill and allrounder Shane Watson to their squad and leaving out regular 12th man Brett Lee.

Pakistan can only dream of

Australia's lavish playing resources as Ricky Ponting's team look to launch a busy 2005 playing schedule with victory over the tourists following their 10 wins in 14 Tests and only one defeat to India this year.

Pakistan have failed to ram home their advantage after having the Australians 78 for five in Perth and 171 for five in Melbourne, only to implode and lose both Tests heavily.

But their English coach Bob Woolmer believes his Pakistan team is on an upward trending curve.

"I take a lot of positives out of the FROM PAGE 13

Melbourne game," he said.

"It was a tremendously better result in terms of our cricket than in Perth and if we can maintain this upward curve we can learn to play against teams like Australia."

Nobody expects anything other than another substantial victory for Australia in the Sydney Test given reasonable weather, but Pakistan must look to finish their ill-fated series on an upswing and not resign themselves to the inevitability of defeat, which was apparent in the latter stages of the Perth and Melbourne Tests.

Australia's relentless quest for cricket perfection is creating problems of a different kind with commentators bemoaning the lack of opposition and four-day results.

Ponting sees the early Test finishes as a bonus for his champion team.

"Things have worked out pretty well for us that both of the last Test matches have finished early and it gives our bowlers an extra day to put their feet up. It's a bit of a bonus to finish the MCG game a day early," he said.

Australia are on the crest of a

dominant cricketing era. Their top three order batsmen, Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer and Ricky Ponting have more than 60 Test centuries between them and No.4 Damien Martyn finished the calendar year second only to Langer (1,481) with 1,353 runs including six centuries.

Adam Gilchrist averages almost 52 in Tests with 12 centuries at No 7 and is fourth all-time leading wicketkeeper with 279 Test dismissals.

Australia possess two of the alltime greatest bowlers with legspinner Shane Warne taking the most Test wickets with 561 while paceman Glenn McGrath ranks fourth with 477.

Woolmer spoke of the immense challenge for his Pakistan team when he said after the MCG loss: "If you look at the average age of our side and take out Inzamam (aged 34) the average age is 23.

"Compared to Australia they average 50 Test matches a head and our guys -- taking Inzamam out of the equation -- average 16 Test matches, so it's a huge learning curve for the guys."