Sri Lanka’s gruelling test in ‘unknown’ Pakistan
Sri Lanka’s full-strength Test team will embark on a significant tour of Pakistan today to play two matches as part of the ICC World Test Championship.
Pakistan has not hosted Test cricket since the 2009 Lahore attack on the Sri Lanka team that wounded several players, staff members and killed a few security officers.
The series was initially scheduled to be played in October with the most likely venue to be the UAE. However after successfully hosting the second-string Sri Lanka team in the limited-overs leg in August and September, they forced Sri Lanka Cricket to play the Test series in Pakistan.
The first match is scheduled to start on December 11 in Rawalpindi, followed by the second game in Karachi from December 19. However, not having a practice match would be a concern for the Lankans. Can they get into the Test match rhythm straight away in a country where nobody has played Test cricket for over a decade, by conducting only two training sessions?
Most of the players have been playing white-ball cricket over the past two months and their last competitive red-ball match was the second Test match against New Zealand in August which Sri Lanka lost by an innings and 65 runs at P. Sara Stadium.
Only young left-arm spinner Lasith Embuldeniya had the opportunity to play in the SLC U23 Inter-Club Tournament, while the other players took part in the Singer-MCA Tournaments or T10 Tournament.
During the New Zealand Tests, former skipper Dinesh Chandimal was discarded despite having an average of 41.86. But it is highly likely that he will be slotted back into the playing XI in Rawalpindi. If Chandimal is picked, it will be interesting to see whether he will make the lineup purely as a batsman at the expense of Kusal Perera, who scored only 24 runs in 4 innings against New Zealand or as the stumper of the side, replacing Niroshan Dickwella.
Oshada Fernando, had a stellar debut series in South Africa, but has since been overlooked for Tests. He is likely to open the batting with skipper Dimuth Karunaratne followed by Kusal Mendis and Angelo Mathews.
The team management will only take a call whether to play three seamers and one specialist spinner or two seamers and two spinners after taking a closer look at the pitch. How they use all-rounder Dhananjaya de Silva, is key to balance the combination.
Adverse weather in the island dampened Sri Lanka’s training sessions over the past few weeks. Last Friday, they had a rather successful practice session under the watchful eyes of their new head coach Mickey Arthur, who will be taking on his former employers, Pakistan in his first assignment.
He was Pakistan’s head coach until August and was clearly disappointed when they didn’t renew his contract after the World Cup, where Pakistan failed to qualify for the semi-finals. As he begins his tenure with Sri Lanka Cricket, bagging all 120 points available in Pakistan would surely be former South African and Australian coach’s target.
However, the Pakistanis are coming back after a disastrous tour down under where their bowling attack was termed ‘the worst ever on Australian shores’ by former captain Ricky Ponting.
The 0-2 loss at the hands of Australians definitely hurt the pride of Pakistan cricket. Nevertheless, they will be excited to play Test cricket in front of their home crowds since most of their players have not played the longest format of the game in their own backyard.
“When we played in UAE we had a plan as to how to get results there but here we will have to first look at the pitches and then see what plans to make to get results in Pakistan,” Azhar Ali said after returning to Pakistan from Australia.
“We have to come up with a new game plan. We want a track that suits us. We need to start afresh on how to win Tests in Pakistan.”
Misbah-Ul-Haq, the chief selector and head coach of Pakistan, is under tremendous pressure after the Australian tour hence expect several changes to the squad which has not been announced yet.