Pakistan Cricket touched a historic milestone last month when Zimbabwe toured the country for a series of three ODIs and two T20s. This May has proven to be a month to remember for all the Pakistani fans and players as they were able to watch International cricket in their home for the first time in six years.
Despite the fact that Zimbabwe made life tough for Pakistan, they were still not able to beat them. They lost all their matches, but won the hearts of the Pakistani nation as they were the ones who showed that it is safe to play cricket in the Land of the Pure once again. As the days pass by, the euphoria has been fading and now the challenge that awaits is much bigger. This month, Pakistan tour Sri Lanka for a series comprising of three test matches, five One Day Internationals and two Twenty20s.
Pakistan Tour of Sri Lanka 2015 Preview
First up will be the test series. The squads have been announced and the players are already training. The captain of Pakistan, Misbah-ul-haq, is confident about his squad and expects them to perform better and give a hard time to the hosts. On the other hand, Sri Lanka have a very strong squad and have an advantage over Pakistan due to the absence of Saeed Ajmal.
Ajmal has been Pakistan’s go-to bowler, but the ICC’s new regulations proved his bowling action to be illegal. It was declared illegal and he was banned from bowling. Ajmal started working hard on his action and he was successful in correcting it by the start of 2015. He has been allowed to bowl officially now but he has not been able to find his rhythm with the new action. Therefore, he has been left out of the International team for a while to practice in the domestic game and find his form again.
As announced by the PCB on 3rd June 2015, Pakistan’s squad to face Sri Lanka includes:
Misbah-ul-haq (captain) , Azhar Ali (vice-captain), Ahmed Shahzad, Asad Shafiq, Ehsan Adil, Haris Sohail, Imran Khan, Junaid Khan, Mohammad Hafeez, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wicket-keeper), Shan Masood, Wahab Riaz, Yasir Shah, Younis Khan, Zulfiqar Babar.
Though Saeed Ajmal is missing, Junaid Khan is still in the squad. He missed the World Cup due to injury but was able to make a full recovery. He played his last test series against Bangladesh in May 2015, which was the only successful series in that tour. Haris Sohail is the new man in town as he makes his test debut. His temperament will be tested, in spite of the fact that he has been a very consistent and successful player in his first-class career. It will, no doubt, be interesting to watch how he will perform in unlimited-overs international cricket.
On 10th June, the test squad of Sri Lanka was announced. It includes the following players:
Angelo Mathews (Captain), Lahiru Thirimanne (vice-captain), Dushmantha Chameera, Dinesh Chandimal (wicket-keeper), Nuwan Pradeep, Rangana Herath, Dimuth Karunaratne, Tharindu Kaushal, Suranga Lakmal, Jehan Mubarak, Dilruwan Perera, Kusal Perera, Dhammika Prasad, Kumar Sangakkara, Kaushal Silva, Kithuruwan Vithanage.
With Jehan Mubarak returning to the squad, Sri Lanka have a stronger bowling attack than Pakistan. The hosts do have a few players who can make the momentum shift towards them in minutes but they have a very young and inexperienced squad overall. The player making his debut for Sri Lanka will be Dushmantha Chameera. He is a promising young talent and is expected to show his potential in this home series. Among the experienced players, Sri Lankans have their veteran soldier, Kumar Sangakkara. Everyone knows what he is capable of. This man is in-form and has the potential to put the opponent team in a very difficult situation once he settles down in the pitch.
Going into the battle field with quite a few youngsters, Sri Lanka captain, Angelo Mathews said that he and all others need to be patient with the youngsters and give them time to get set. He said:
“What we need to do is give the young players some time and show some patience. Maturity only comes to a cricketer the more he plays.”
The schedule set for the Test series was announced a few weeks ago. There will be three test matches played in Galle International Stadium, P Sara Oval Colombo and Pallekele International Cricket Stadium. The schedule is as follows:
Jun 17 – Jun 21, 2015 1st Test – Pakistan vs Sri Lanka 10:00 local| 04:30 GMT | 09:30 PKT
Jun 25 – Jun 29, 2015 2nd Test – Pakistan vs Sri Lanka 10:00 local | 04:30 GMT | 09:30 PKT
Jul 3 – Jul 7, 2015 3rd Test – Pakistan vs Sri Lanka 10:00 local | 04:30 GMT | 09:30 PKT
In the last test series between the two, the Pakistani batsmen had some serious difficulties against Sri Lanka’s spinners. Spin bowling has always been a lethal weapon for Sri Lanka and it has never let them down. In the past, it was Muralitharan – the great; now it is Rangana Herath. Misbah-ul-haq spoke about his team’s strategy against Sri Lankan spin this time. He said:
“We have an answer for Hearth this time as everybody is working hard on how to defend him. We are looking on a plan on how to handle him and how we should apply ourselves against him. We only struggled because he got a good hold of the conditions and it’s important for us to play him well to get a better result. The more we play him well, more we have a chance to do better against them”
Beating Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka has never been easy at all. Just to challenge them the opponents need to have a perfect strategy and to implement it perfectly. When the conditions are in the hosts’ favour, the visiting team needs to work harder than ever to have a successful tour and that is what Pakistan must do.
They lack some key players, but the squad, though inexperienced, has the potential to do big things. Misbah-ul-Haq’s confidence in his team is very encouraging, while Angelo Mathews is ready with his boys to show the visitors that they are the boss here.
