Cricket: Asia Cup: A dress rehearsal, debut and DDS returns

Friday’s evening’s last match between – Sri Lanka versus Pakistan – in the Asia Cup’s Super Four round will hand a debut for Pramod Madushan resting Asitha Fernando, proving to be expensive, and Dhananjaya De Silva returning in to Charith Asanlanka’s place.

To be played at Dubai, Danushka Gunatilake might take over the mantle from his regular captain, Dasun Shanaka.

It would serve as a perfect outing to test and trial their options and give chances to unused players ahead of the all-important final on Sunday.

Friday’s match will also be the first outing between the two finalists, in this edition.

There will be no change in the spin department as Sri Lanka look to continue the winning momentum. They have won all three of their last game and a win today will give them a bag of confidence ahead of Sunday's final clash.

Though this match’s result may seem immaterial, closely looking at it, it would be the most apt match for experimental exposure.

Squads:

Sri Lanka (possible): 1 Kusal Mendis (wk), 2 Pathum Nissanka, 3 Dhananjaya De Silva, 4 Danushka Gunathilaka (capt), 5 Dasun Shanaka, 6 Bhanuka Rajapaksa, 7 Chamika Karunaratne, 8 Jeffrey Vandersay, 9 Maheesh Theekshana, 10 Pramod Madushan, 11 Dilshan Madushanka

Pakistan (possible): 1 Mohammad Rizwan (wk), 2 Babar Azam (capt), 3 Fakhar Zaman, 4 Iftikhar Ahmed, 5 Khushdil Shah, 6 Asif Ali, 7 Mohammad Nawaz, 8 Shadab Khan or Usman Qadir, 9 Hasan Ali, 10 Haris Rauf, 11 Mohammad Hasnain