As the Pakistan tour of Sri Lanka 2023 is about to start on July 16, 2023, Sri Lanka announces the much-awaited 1st test squad.
Sri Lanka squad for 1st Test vs Pakistan
Pathum Nissanka has been recalled by the Sri Lanka board for the Test against Pakistan. Nissanka, played just three Tests for Sri Lanka, featuring the long format last year against Australia at home.
Recently the opener was sparkling in the World Cup qualifiers, smashing a couple of hundreds in Sri Lanka as they qualified for World Cup 2023. Apart from Pathum Nissanka, pacer Kasun Rajitha has also been added to the 16-member squad by the selectors naming the squad only for the first game of the two-Test series.
Lasith Embuldeniya didn’t get a game against Ireland recently at home. Asitha Fernando, Dushan Hemantha, and Milan Priyanath Rathnayake have also been dropped from the squad in the series against Ireland 2-0 in the series in April.
Dilshan Madushanka, who has had an impressive start to his ODI career this year, has found a spot in the squad for the upcoming Test series against Pakistan and will be in the squad to make his debut.
Madushanka, meanwhile, is one of three frontline fast bowling options available to Sri Lanka, being included in place of Asitha Fernando, who is recovering from dengue.
While Praveen Jayawickrama has been called back to the Test squad with his last appearance on May 2022. Lakshitha Manasinghe was included after an impressive showing against Pakistan in the tour game recently.
With captain Dimuth Karunaratne nursing a hamstring injury, and remaining uncertain for the first Test, Nissanka could be drafted into the team for the first Test, joining Nishan Madushka at the top of the order.
The left-arm fast bowler impressed during the South Africa ‘A’ tour of Sri Lanka, eventually earning a spot in the contingent that travelled to Zimbabwe for the Cricket World Cup Qualifier.
The first Test between Sri Lanka and Pakistan will kickstart this Sunday (July 16) at Galle before the teams move to Colombo for the second and final Test, which will commence on July 24.
Sri Lanka squad
Dimuth Karunaratne (C), Nishan Madushka, Kusal Mendis, Angelo Matthews, Dinesh Chandimal, Dhananjaya de Silva, Pathum Nissanka, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Kamindu Mendis, Ramesh Mendis, Prabath Jayasuriya, Praveen Jayawickrama, Kasun Rajitha, Dilshan Madushanka, Vishwa Fernando, Lakshitha Manasinghe.
Sri Lanka vs Pakistan 2023
On getting clearance from the Pakistan cricket board, the Pakistan squad will meet Sri Lanka in a 2 Test match in the month of July in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka Cricket is all set to welcome Pakistan to the test series 2023. The series will start following the 3-day warm-up match will be held on 11th July in Colombo.
Since the SL vs Pak test series 2023 is starting before the upcoming ICC World Test Championship 2023-2025, conclusion of the series will decide the position of both the teams in the ICC Test Championship 2023-2025 leaderboard.
In 2022, Pakistan visited Sri Lanka for a two-test match series where the series ended in draw 1-1 each. Pakistan will want to repeat the history of 2015 where they won the series by 2-1, on the other hand, Sri Lanka would like to take revenge by defeating Pakistan in July.
Currently, Pakistan stands at the number 6th place in the ICC test ranking whereas Sri Lanka is sitting at the 7th position. In terms of head-to-head in test cricket, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have met 57 times on the field where Pakistan got the upper hand by winning 21 matches whereas Sri Lanka won 17 matches, and 19 matches between both the teams were drawn.
