REUTERS

Australia are on a journey of discovery as they tour Pakistan for the first time in a quarter of a century and will hope to emerge with a first away Test series win in six years.

Pat Cummins’s side have not played a Test off-shore since the outbreak of COVID-19 and many of the players are visiting the South Asian nation for the first time.

Thirty-four-year-old spinner Nathan Lyon, one of the squad’s most senior players, was 10 when the last Australian side toured in 1998 and won a three-match series 1-0.

“I’ll say it’s a totally different challenge to what we’re used to at home,” Lyon told reporters on Wednesday, two days before the first of three Tests gets underway in Rawalpindi.

“We haven’t played an away Test since 2019 so it’s going to be a big challenge for us but it’s a young, exciting Australian Test squad that we have here at the moment.”

“My mindset is every game we go into, we will look to win, not draw or lose. My mindset is to win 3-0 in Pakistan,” Lyon added.

Though dominating Pakistan on home soil, Australia have not beaten them away since the 2002-03 series played in Sri Lanka and the United Arab Emirates.