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Australia v Pakistan series: Peter Handscomb twists knife deeper into Pakistan with second Test century

Andrew Wu

Some players find the transition to Test cricket extremely difficult, others don't – like Peter Handscomb.

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Handscomb gets himself out in bizarre fashion

After scoring an excellent century Peter Handscomb was out hit wicket.

He may not be a household name like Steve Smith or David Warner but the sight of the Victorian taking guard well within his crease is becoming a familiar one.

Handscomb followed up his maiden Test century in Brisbane with another ton in Sydney on Wednesday. It may not have been an agenda setter like David Warner's or as big as Matt Renshaw's but his contribution further sapped the morale of the hapless Pakistanis.

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Selectors have copped plenty of flak this summer but Trevor Hohns' panel have nailed it by promoting Handscomb while he was in career-best form in the Shield. It has transferred into the international arena, with Handscomb joining Herbie "Horseshoe" Collins, in 1920-21, as the only Australians to score 50s in each of his first four Tests.

"I've been very lucky coming in on my own conditions, own country," Handscomb said.

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"I had a good understanding of what was going to be coming at me as well as Shield cricket aren't as good as they are in Test cricket. You take that next step and you're getting flatter wickets as well which is awesome from a batting point of view. "Had I debuted somewhere else it could have been a different story."

So too, he concedes, had fate dealt him a different hand – like the ones Nic Maddinson and Callum Ferguson received. Whereas Handscomb strode to the crease on debut in daylight, the discarded Maddinson started under lights against the pink ball. Ferguson had the misfortune to be blooded on a seaming track in Hobart against a red-hot South African attack.

"It is a game where timing is almost everything. To throw a cliche, it's a game of millimetres," Handscomb said. "I nick that first ball off against [Vernon] Philander in Adelaide I'm out for a golden duck in my first Test. But it hasn't and it's been lucky for me. I'm happy I've taken those chances and opportunities to make the scores that I have." 

Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur admits his side has run out of ideas to remove Handscomb, whose unorthodox technique has netted him an average of 89.75 after six innings. They have not been helped by their attack's inability to make early incisions which would have exposed the No.5 to a fresher ball.

"We've tried all sorts," Arthur said. "We've analysed him to the nth degree and he just keeps coming up trumps. Well played."

It took the unusual method of hit wicket to remove Handscomb, who grazed leg stump with his bat as he attempted to reach a wide yorker from paceman Wahab Riaz. It was enough to dislodge a bail.

"I definitely heard something as I played the shot, I didn't actually feel it on my bat but when I turned around and saw the bail had been dislodged I was worried that I'd done it," Handscomb said.

 It was the first time in 183 top-level  innings he has been dismissed this way.

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