Australia captain Michael Clarke has changed his strategy following concerns with the late-night dew and opted to bowl first in Monday night’s deciding game three of their one-day international series against Pakistan in Sharjah.

Australia named an unchanged side with left-arm quick Mitchell Starc declared fit to play despite breaking down and failing to finish his eighth over because of chest soreness in last weekend’s defeat in game two in Abu Dhabi.

Clarke had also won the toss in game two and chose to bat first. Australia lost by seven wickets and their bowlers conceded 20 wides in extremely humid conditions which made controlling the ball difficult.

The current temperature in Sharjah is 44 degrees with 83 per cent humidity.

Pakistan have recalled legspinning allrounder Shahid Afridi from injury and left out struggling paceman Sohail Tanvir who was wicketless in the first two games.

Afridi is one of four specialist spinners in the Pakistan line-up while Australia could not find room for their only frontline slow bowler, Xavier Doherty, in their team.

Australia haven’t lost an ODI series to Pakistan in the past 10 years.

Teams:

Australia: Michael Clarke (capt), David Warner, Matthew Wade, Mike Hussey, David Hussey, George Bailey, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc, James Pattinson, Dan Christian.

Pakistan: Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), Nasir Jamshed, Mohammad Hafeez, Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq, Umar Akmal, Kamran Akmal, Abdur Rehman, Shahid Afridi, Junaid Khan, Saeed Ajmal.