Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat
Sri Lanka Team
WU Tharanga, TM Dilshan, KC Sangakkara†, DPMD Jayawardene, AD Mathews*, SMA Priyanjan, NLTC Perera, S Prasanna, KMDN Kulasekara, HMRKB Herath, SL Malinga
Pakistan Team
Sharjeel Khan, Ahmed Shehzad, Mohammad Hafeez, Umar Akmal†, Misbah-ul-Haq*, Fawad Alam, Sohaib Maqsood, Shahid Afridi, Wahab Riaz, Junaid Khan, Mohammad Irfan
Prabhash Miri: "People said youngsters should be given chances prior to WC-15, i don't understand why Kusal is not playing and even out from the SL squad. Jayasuriya was also was not consistent when he started the career but Ranatunga gave him the freedom of blasting. Why not for Kusal ??" He has a hamstring injury, Prabhash.
2.00pm Toss time! Angelo Mathews has won the toss, and Sri Lanka have chosen to bat. Interesting change, the extra spinner in Seekuge Prasanna. Dinesh Chandimal misses out. One change for Pakistan: Sharjeel Khan replaces Younis Khan.
On the pitch, Misbah-ul-Haq says the spinners will come into the game, but he says there could be reverse-swing too. I wonder if that will happen with the two new balls.
1.55pm The pitch looks like a jigsaw puzzle with cracks all over its surface. It's dry, Russell Arnold says, and the cracks will open up as the game goes on. Win the toss, bat first, is his prescription.
Daniel Alexande: "Kulasekara is out-of-form, SL should bring in Randiv and Prasad for Chandimal and Kula"
Shayan: "Pakistan should definitely play Zulfiqar Babar today, in the absence of Saeed Ajmal. We should start looking for other options in our spin department. Ajmal, undoubtedly, is the best, but still we need to nurture and plan for future as well. Also, babar brings in a complete different variety of spin, with added bounce due to his height."
1.45pm Hello everyone. The ODI series got off to a fantastic start, with that rollicking partnership between Sohaib Maqsood and Fawad Alam, and hopefully we'll have another belter today. Pakistan are 1-0 up and are threatening to dent Sri Lanka's home ODI record, which, contrary to popular imagination, hasn't been great of late, as this preview by Andrew Fernando explains. The Mahinda Rajapakse International Stadium, in particular, hasn't been a happy venue for Sri Lanka, and they may not be looking too kindly upon the weather that forced the shifting of the second ODI from Colombo back to Hambantota.
Pakistan, meanwhile, will have to make at least one change to their team, after Younis Khan had to return home following the death of his nephew. Looking through the squad, it looks like Pakistan might revert to opening with Sharjeel Khan and Ahmed Shehzad and moving Mohammad Hafeez back to number three.
0 comments:
Post a Comment