The second Test of the Test series against Sri Lanka is going to start from tomorrow at the Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC) Cricket Ground, for which Pakistan’s playing XI is likely to remain intact, while the world record holder Saud Shakeel will be waiting for this match.
The last Test at the SSC ground was played between Sri Lanka and England in November 2018, where the Joe Root-led English team won by 42 runs.
Now, after a long gap of 55 months, the Sinhalese Sports Club ground is going to host the second Test of the Pakistan Sri Lanka series. Due to Covid, Sri Lanka played more Tests in Galle.
Sri Lanka have won three and lost three of their last six Tests in Colombo, Pakistan last played a Test in Colombo in August 2014, where Sri Lanka won by 105 runs.
Right-arm fast bowler Ishatha Fernando, who has fully recovered from dengue fever, is expected to return to the Sri Lankan team for the Colombo Test. On the other hand, there is little chance of any change in the Pakistan team and it is likely that the Pakistan team that won the first Test in Galle by four wickets will retain.
The Colombo Test holds significance for Pakistan’s Saud Shakeel, who scored an unbeaten 208 off 361 balls in the first innings of the Galle Test.
Saud Shakeel has scored a fifty-plus innings in every Test of his career and if he scores a half-century in an innings in Colombo as well, he will become the first batsman in the history of Test cricket to score fifty or more runs in all the opening seven Tests.
Here are the possible eleven players of Pakistan in the Colombo Test. Imam-ul-Haq, Abdullah Shafiq, Shan Masood, Babar Azam (captain), Saud Shakeel, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wicketkeeper), Agha Salman, Nouman Ali, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah and Abrar Ahmed.
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