 Despite having lost the ODI series to the hosts Sri Lanka, the Pakistani
team would be on a high after having won the last two games to go into the solitary
T20I with much confidence. Sri Lanka, on the other hand, has won both, the test
series and the ODI version, and will look to avenge their defeat in the finals
of the ICC World T20 to the same opponents.
Click for Live Score Card of Sri Lanka vs Pakistan
The Pakistani side will be without Younus Khan, who will give way to
Shahid Afridi, Pakistan's new T20I captain. Afridi had not had a very
good time with the bat or ball in the ODI series, but then, he has been known
to have worse periods of play too. Besides that, the format of T20 should assist
the new skipper to get back to his original self and guide his rather young
team.
It would be interesting to see if the likes of Misbah-ul-Haq and Mohammad
Yousuf make it to the playing eleven given their absolute loss of form in
the first four games, before playing well in the final one. My take is that
the Pakistani team will look to install more youngsters in this format of the
game, what with Umar Akmal and Fawad Alam having done well for the side.
Akmal in particular, has looked like a talented youngster who is willing to
improve and learn for mistakes and with his aggressive perfectly suited for
this version, one can be rest assured that he should relish T20 cricket.
The bowling has been rather up and down ever since Umar Gul and Abdul Razzaq
injured themselves and did not play a part in the series; but rather surprisingly,
the trio of Mohammad Aamer, Naved-ul-Hasan Rana and Iftikhar Anjum Rao
have performed well in the end. However, it is difficult to see all three of
them making it to the playing 11 of the T20 side, given that Pakistan will have
plenty of support spinners in the side.
For Sri Lanka, Sanath Jayasuriya's lack of runs is a worrying sign for the
Lankans. Without his aggression at the top, the side looks listless and the
overdependence on Kumar Sangakkara makes the batting rather weak. Thilina
Kandamby and Chamara Kapugedera have been patchy, whereas, despite Mahela
Jayawardene's century in one of the games, Sri Lanka clearly lack some incision
at the top.
Their bowling is much better served, especially if the pitches are the ones
which will assist the medium pace bowlers more than the spinners, but in a twenty
over format, it may not matter either ways. Nuwan Kulasekera and the
man-of-the-series, Thilan Thushara should be the men to watch out for,
though, I do think that Muralitharan will make a comeback after his rest, in
place of Ajantha Mendis.
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