Pakistan vs Sri Lanka, 1st T20I, Lahore: Preview, predictions, likely XIs

Having eased through the ODIs 2-0, Pakistan will hope to provide their fans in Lahore with something of the same joy as the T20I series against Sri Lanka commences on Saturday, October 5.

More of the same is expected. Pakistan, with a full-strength squad to choose from, have too much firepower for the visitors, who will be depleted by the withdrawal of ten players, most of them key, before the tour. One of them was Lasith Malinga, their T20I captain and still a lethal force in the game, and it remains to be seen how Sri Lanka can cope without their talisman.

That said, perhaps a shorter format will help. It’s a more unpredictable format, with less room for catastrophic errors, and Sri Lanka will hope that’ll work in their favour. The young side showed good fight in the final ODI, with Danushka Gunathilaka’s century helping them post a 298-run target, which Pakistan crossed with 10 balls to spare. That was a marked improvement from their collapse to 28/5 for in the second ODI, and Sri Lanka will hope the upward trajectory continues into the T20Is.

Pakistan, meanwhile, will have a few different faces in their T20I side, chief among them being Ahmed Shahzad and Umar Akmal, the latter coming back to the side after a gap of three years. There will be no Imam-ul-Haq in the series, who has sustained a hand injury. Sarfaraz Ahmed will be hoping to continue his unbeaten run as captain in T20I series, and the early impressions are that will be the case this series.

Head to head

Pakistan and Sri Lanka have clashed in 18 T20Is over the years. Pakistan have been the better side in those encounters, emerging winners 13 times. In fact, they have won the last 6 matches between these sides in the format, going back to 2015.

Key players

Sarfaraz Ahmed (Pakistan): Sarfaraz will captain the side in a T20I, and under his guidance, the team has yet to lose a series. Their 11-series winning-streak was snapped in South Africa early this year, but Ahmed wasn’t playing on that occasion. As far as he is concerned, the side’s still unbeaten, and he will be keen to extend it.

Dasun Shanaka (Sri Lanka): In the absence of Malinga, Shanaka will take the reins this series as T20I captain, and it’ll be interesting to see how the side fares under him. He had a decent ODI series, scoring 68 and 43, and he will be hopeful of carrying that form into the T20Is.

Likely XIs

Pakistan: Fakhar Zaman, Ahmed Shehzad, Babar Azam, Haris Sohail, Asif Ali, Imad Wasim, Faheem Ashraf, Sarfaraz Ahmed (c & wk), Shadab Khan, Usman Shinwari, Wahab Riaz.

Sri Lanka: Danushka Gunathilaka, Avishka Fernando, Oshada Fernando, Angelo Perera, Minod Bhanuka (wk), Lahiru Madushanka, Dasun Shanaka (c), Shehan Jayasuriya, Wanindu Hasaranga, Lakshan Sandakan, Nuwan Pradeep

Prediction

Pakistan to continue their ODI form into the T20Is