Follow UsIt's Galle, you know exactly what you are going to get! Sri Lanka and Pakistan will be involved in an out-and-out spin battle when they come face to face against each other in the first Test of the two-match series, starting on Saturday (July 16). The hosts would be high on confidence after hammering Australia in the second Test after being toppled in the first encounter. Meanwhile, Pakistan head into this series having lost to Pat Cummins and Co. at home.
Sri Lankan captain Dimuth Karunaratne has already admitted that Pakistan will be a tougher opposition than Australia, considering the quality they possess in their arsenal. Most of Pakistan batters are in very good form, while we all know what Shaheen Shah Afridi is capable of. Having said that, the limelight will be on returning Yasir Shah who is set to play his first Test since August 2021. Sri Lanka and Pakistan are placed third and fifth respectively in the World Test Championship table and would be eager to strengthen their position.
Sri Lanka put trust in Jayasuriya, Theekshana
At the start of 2022, it’s impossible to believe that anyone would have thought that Sri Lanka would head into a home series without Lasith Embuldeniya and Praveen Jayawickrama. Along with Ramesh Mendis, Embuldeniya and Jayawickrama have been Sri Lanka’s frontline spinners for a while now but their recent form forced the selectors to look beyond them. Embuldeniya was horrible in the first Test against Australia and that’s when the team management decided to bring in Prabath Jayasuriya, Maheesh Theekshana and Dunith Wellalage. The latter didn’t get a chance to make his debut, but the former two did, and it was Jayasuriya who wreaked havoc with his slow left-arm spin.
The 30-year-old scalped six wickets in each innings and ended up with match figures of 12 for 177 - the best for Sri Lanka on Test debut. Sri Lanka would want their spinners to replicate what they did in the second Test but it’s not going to be easy against this Pakistan batting line-up. The surface at Galle is going to be a lot more challenging but Pakistan have the best batting average (54.8) and balls per dismissal (110.7) against spin since 2020. All of their frontline batters who are likely to feature in the opening Test are averaging way above 50 against spin in this time frame. However, the likes of Babar Azam, Abdullah Shafique, Mohammad Rizwan and Imam-Ul-Haq are yet to play a Test in Sri Lanka and it would be interesting to see how they operate on a proper rank turner.
Dinesh Chandimal 2.0
Sri Lanka’s transition since the mid-2010s has been a rocky one and Dinesh Chandimal exemplifies the spectacular they are capable of but also the spontaneous self-destruction. The 32-year-old has been around for more than 12 years and despite all the talent, the middle-order batter has never really graduated to the next level. A level he is very much capable of operating at. Don’t get us wrong, an average of 42.02 in 68 Tests is quite impressive, but Chandimal has never managed to maintain that consistency. There have been some phenomenal innings in between but the right-hander has also gone through phases averaging in the mid-20s.
From 2019 to 2021, Chandimal scored at an average of 22.52 but things have been way better in 2022. He has been pretty solid this year, managing scores of 206*, 13, 0, 124, 39* and 66. It was his double century in the second Test that helped Sri Lanka gain a match-winning lead. What hasn’t helped Chandimal is that he has been shuffled way too much over the years but his best have come at No. 5 and 6 where he is averaging close to 50. The team management would now want him to stay on his toes and live up to his potential. He was the only one who managed to touch the triple-figure mark against Australia and the home side would want the likes of Karunaratne, Pathum Nissanka, Angelo Mathews and Dhananjaya de Silva to score big in this series.
The return of Yasir
The last 12 months haven’t been great for the legspinner. He sustained a thumb injury last year and has struggled with his fitness. The 36-year-old was also named in a case concerning the alleged rape of an underage girl but those charges were later dropped. Pakistan surely missed his services on the field. Sajid Khan and Nauman Ali haven’t been as impactful, and as a result, Pakistan spinners have the worst average (42) and strike rate (86.3) in red-ball cricket since September 2021, despite playing all of their last five Tests in Asia.
And, when it comes to Asia, Yasir has a superb record in this continent. The leggie has played 26 Tests in Asia, picking up 164 wickets at an average of 25.4 and a strike rate of 52.1. What’s more, it was Yasir who was named Player of the Series when Pakistan last played Test cricket in Sri Lanka in 2015. He scalped 24 wickets in three Tests and helped his team win the series 2-1. However, Yasir will need some support from Nauman. The visitors could also play one of the two spin-bowling all-rounders - Mohammad Nawaz/Salman Ali Agha - to bolster their spin attack even further.
Fawad returns to Sri Lanka after 13 years
The venue was R.Premadasa Stadium in Colombo but it was in this very country Fawad Alam made his Test debut. The left-hander crafted 168 in the second innings of his maiden Test but only played two more red-ball encounters before being out of the international scene for 11 years. The 36-year-old finally made his comeback in 2020 and has become an integral part of the Pakistan batting line-up. Fawad scored centuries in New Zealand, Pakistan, Zimbabwe and West Indies but hasn’t been amongst runs of late. Apart from him, every Pakistan batter in the top-six scored at least one hundred against Australia. He has only managed 91 runs in his last five Tests at 18.2 and would be itching to turn things around in the country where his journey started.
Probable XIs
Sri Lanka - Pathum Nissanka, Dimuth Karunaratne (c), Kamindu Mendis/Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Dhananjaya de Silva, Dinesh Chandimal, Niroshan Dickwella (wk), Ramesh Mendis, Maheesh Theekshana, Prabath Jayasuriya, Kasun Rajitha/Asitha Fernando.
Pakistan - Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, Azhar Ali, Babar Azam (c), Fawad Alam, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Mohammad Nawaz/Salman Ali Agha, Yasir Shah, Hasan Ali, Nauman Ali, Shaheen Afridi.