Sri Lanka’s tour of UAE is all to begin from the 28th September as the two teams will clash in the first Test at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. The two teams are set to play Two Tests, five ODI’s and three T20Is. Sri Lanka will also travel to Pakistan for the first time since the terrorist attacks in 2009. Sri Lanka will play the last T20 at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.
Pakistan last played when the World XI toured Pakistan for a three-match T20 series. This was the first time a team was allowed to travel to Pakistan after the terrorist attacks in 2009. Pakistan won that series 2-1. Pakistan is high on their successful Champions Trophy campaign where they beat Indian in the final. The success has boosted the confidence of the players. Pakistan last played a Test series against West Indies which they won 2-1.
The Second Test between the two teams will be a Day/Night Test. This will be Sri Lanka’s first D/N Test match. Pakistan has the experience of playing a Day/Night Test when they played against West Indies in Dubai.
This will be Pakistan’s first Test series without the services of Misbah Ul-Haq and Younis Khan. The legendary duo retired after the West Indies series. Haris Sohail and Usman Salahuddin will be the first pair to fill the shoes in the middle order. Sarfraz Khan has been appointed the Pakistani captain in all the three formats. Yasir Shah also passed the fitness test to book a place in the team.
Sri Lanka, on the other hand, will be looking to reconstruct their team. They were thrashed 3-0 by India at home and then were whitewashed 5-0 in the ODI series as well.
Their interim coach Nic Pothas has claimed that they fight hard in this series and will give some fight to the Pakistani team. Pothas also said that he is tired of talking about his team’s transition period. He said:
“We are probably in an era where we are sick and tired of talking about transition.”
Angelo Matthews will miss the first Test due to injury. Kaushal Silva and uncapped Roshen Silva and Samarawickrama have been called to the team. The bowling department will be spearheaded by Nuwan Pradeep and Suranga Lakmal.
The last time these two teams met in a fully fledged series was in Sri Lanka in 2015. Pakistan won in all the three formats. They won the Test series 2-1, ODI series 3-2 and T20 series 2-0.
Pakistan goes into the series as clear favourites because of their recent form and their head to head advantage over the opposition.