Pakistan v Sri Lanka: Everything you need to know!
A composite of schedule, squads, timings, ticket prices, history and head-to-head records.
Sri Lanka’s on-again, off-again tour of Pakistan is finally on again, which means we will soon be seeing true international cricket on our soil.
It is possible that you may not have been following all the happenings, and so we bring to you all there is to know about the upcoming limited-over home series.
Schedule
The Sri Lankan team will first play an ODI series against Pakistan at the National Stadium Karachi, the schedule for which is as under:
Sep 27 – 1st ODI, Karachi
Sep 29 – 2nd ODI, Karachi
Oct 2 – 3rd ODI, Karachi
Days later, the tour’s next leg will take place as the Gaddafi Stadium Lahore, where the two teams will play T20I matches.
Oct 5 – 1st T20I, Lahore
Oct 7 – 2nd T20I, Lahore
Oct 9 – 3rd T20I, Lahore
The islanders were also invited to play a Test series but they declined.
Timings for both the series will be announced soon, although the day/night matches are expected to kick off at 3pm PST.
Tickets
The online sale of tickets, as per the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), will commence from 20 September (Friday) at yayvo.com, while select outlets of TCS will commence sales a day later, on Sep 21 (Saturday).
For the ODI series in Karachi, the ticket price ranges from Rs500 to Rs3,000, whereas prices for the T20I series in Lahore ranges from Rs500 to Rs5,000.
More details on tickets and their pricing can be found here.
Squads
ODI squad: Lahiru Thirimanne (captain), Danushka Gunathilaka, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Avishka Fernando, Oshada Fernando, Shehan Jayasuriya, Dasun Shanaka, Minod Bhanuka, Angelo Perera, Wanindu Hasaranga, Lakshan Sandakan, Nuwan Pradeep, Isuru Udana, Kasun Rajitha, Lahiru Kumara
T20I squad: Dasun Shanaka (capt), Danushka Gunathilaka, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Avishka Fernando, Oshada Fernando, Shehan Jayasuriya, Angelo Perera, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Minod Bhanuka, Lahiru Madushanka, Wanindu Hasaranga, Lakshan Sandakan, Isuru Udana, Nuwan Pradeep, Kasun Rajitha, Lahiru Kuma.
Players who chose not to visit: Niroshan Dickwella, Kusal Janith Perera, Dhananjaya De Silva, Thisara Perera, Akila Dhananjaya, Lasith Malinga, Angelo Mathews, Suranga Lakmal, Dinesh Chandimal, Dimuth Karunaratne
Kusal Mendis is out injured.
Pakistan squad
Pakistan's ODI squad is as under:
Sarfaraz Ahmed (capt), Babar Azam, Abid Ali, Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Sohail, Mohammad Hasnain, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Imam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Shadab Khan, Usman Khan Shinwari, Wahab Riaz
The roster for the T20I series will be announced at a later date.
Why did Sri Lanka not to want to visit?
The Sri Lankan cricket team were a subject of a terrorist attack in Lahore in 2009. Since then, they and the rest of the cricketing world have been reluctant to tour Pakistan.
However, the stance of foreign teams have softened significantly in recent years, thanks to the much improved security situation in Pakistan, and the government's offer to give the same level of security that is usually reserved for foreign leaders.
A Sri Lankan delegation was briefed on the planned security arrangements, and everything was going smoothly when an intelligence report, possibly sent to Sri Lankan authorities by way of India, spooked the islanders.
It needed a new round of assurances from the Pakistan side to convince Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) and their government to send their team.
Head to head
Pakistan and Sri Lanka have faced each other in 153 ODIs between 1975 and 2017. Pakistan have won 90 of those encounters, while Sri Lanka have won 58. One fixture was tied while four produced no results.
Pakistan have a winning record of 60.73% against Sri Lanka (39.26%).
The two teams last clashed in an ODI series in 2017 when Pakistan whitewashed Sri Lanka 5-0 in the UAE. The Green team also won the subsequent two-match T20I series 2-0, clean sweeping the limited-overs encounters 7-0.
Pakistan and Sri Lanka were scheduled to face each other in the World Cup 2019 but their matchup was abandoned due to rain.
Pakistan's T20I record against Sri Lanka is even more dominant. Of the 18 matches played between the two, Pakistan, the number-one ranked T20I side in the world, has won 13 to Sri Lanka's five, giving the hosts a staggering winning percentage of 72.22.
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