Today at Rawalpindi, Australia begins its first tour of Pakistan since 1998 in what is the biggest step yet in full international cricket tours becoming a regular event in Pakistan.

Pakistan has been plagued with cancelled or abandoned tours and to understand why, it's necessary to rewind to March 3 2009 when Sri Lanka's tour was abandoned after a gunman opened fire on the team bus.

As it was, Sri Lanka were only touring after India pulled out of its scheduled tour of Pakistan, in the aftermath of the Mumbai terrorist attacks a few months earlier. Sri Lanka agreed to go in India's place, a decision that was influenced by the Pakistan government's offer of presidential-style security for the team.

After playing three one-day internationals in Pakistan in January 2009, the Test tour itself began at Karachi in late February where the first Test was drawn. It was on the morning third day of the second Test at Lahore, where the visitors had amassed 606 in their first innings, that the attack on the Sri Lankan team bus occurred as it made its way to Gaddafi Stadium.

According to the BBC report on the day, 10 to 12 gunmen ambushed the team bus at Liberty Square in the heart of Lahore, killing six policemen who were escorting the bus as well as the driver. Remarkably, none of the Sri Lankans were killed, though many were injured.

The team was helicoptered out of Gaddafi Stadium and the tour was abandoned. It came seven years after New Zealand's visit was also hastily called off when after a suicide bomber attack outside team hotel in Karachi, although it was French naval technicians working on a submarine project that were the target of that attack rather than the Blackcaps.
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Speaking to the BBC immediately after the attack, Imran Khan, the former captain and now President of Pakistan, called it “one of the worst security failures in Pakistan” adding that “the Pakistan government guaranteed the Sri Lankan cricket team that they would provide them security”.

Following the attack on the Sri Lankans, Pakistan was forced to play all its matches abroad. At the end of 2009 they played a ‘home' Test series in New Zealand and the following year they played a one-off Test against Australia at Lord's.

Those matches aside, for 13 years now Pakistan has had to call the UAE home, as international teams have been reluctant to tour for a lengthy period, if at all. Zimbabwe played the first post-2009 one-day international series in 2015, followed by the West Indies three years later.

It wasn't until 2019 that Test cricket returned to Pakistan and, once again, it was Sri Lanka that agreed to a two-Test tour. Bangladesh and South Africa were the next to tour playing two Tests each, but neither were as high profile as the arrival last week of the Australian side, for a full tour of three Test matches, three ODIs and a T20.

The Australian tour takes on extra significance following England's decision to cancel its tour to Pakistan late last year, immediately after New Zealand returned home from its one-day series before a ball was bowled. Australia is here with state-level security, where they have confined to their hotel in Islamabad, the sister city of Rawalpindi and the match venue to practice.

With COVID-19 restrictions being fairly relaxed in Pakistan, not only will Pindi Stadium be able to have fans at full capacity, if Twitter is to be believed, tickets are very hard to come by. To call the occasion momentous for Pakistani people is an understatement.

Yesterday it was announced that the teams will be competing for the newly created Benaud-Qadir trophy, named after the two great leg-spinners. Australia has a full-strength squad of 18 to choose from while Pakistan's hopes received a blow this week when fast bowler Haris Rauf was ruled out of the match after testing positive for COVID-19.

Both teams' final practice was cancelled because of rain which caused Australian captain Pat Cummins to delay announcing his side until the morning of the match after taking a final look at the pitch. In the last Test played at Rawalpindi a year ago, South Africa's spinners took 11 of the 20 Pakistan wickets to fall, which may encourage Australia to play a second spinner alongside Nathan Lyon.

It's expected that whoever wins the toss, will opt to bat first as Pakistan did last year when they beat South Africa by 95 runs, in a match that neither side scored over 300 runs in either innings. And even if Pakistan doesn't bat first, the local fans will still have a home-town boy to cheer on – the Aussie opener Usman Khawaja.

Khawaja was born in Islamabad and his family emigrated to Australia when he was five years old. In 2010, he become the first Australian cricketer of Pakistani origin.

Speaking earlier this week, Khawaja expressed his sentimentality about playing in his hometown in what will be his 47th Test match. “The fact I'm playing in Pakistan is special, don't me wrong, it's very special, something I've always want to do” he said.

"I'm sure I'll look back on it and think that was pretty cool, the first tour of Pakistan after so many years, being born in Pakistan," he said. "As fate would have it everything has worked out beautifully”, he said after he was recalled to the Australian team during the recent Ashes series.

Khawaja also spoke passionately about the lack of cricket in Pakistan. “I feel for the fans. I know how much they love cricket in the subcontinent. I think Pakistan has been deprived a fair bit. It's been disappointing, I understand why, they're still playing overseas, but it's not the same, you want to be able to see your home grounds, your own conditions, go out and watch and take the kids, do all that stuff, which Pakistanis haven't been able to do” he said.

Finally he commented on the reception he would receive from the Pakistani fans. “I've got a lot of support here in Pakistan,” he said, “I think they'll support me. I think they'll be hoping I get runs. But I think they'll be hoping Australia get smashed at the same time”.