Two most exciting Rockstars of Twenty-20 cricket – Pakistan and Sri Lanka all set to bare temper of another fascinating series. Sri Lanka who will be hosting Pakistan this time are looking charged up after decent IPL performances whereas Pakistan has previous records to keep their confidence on a high.

Mohd. Hafeez and Mahela Jayawardene are ready for the captaincy test as Sri Lanka takes on Pakistan in a packed home series

News:

Pakistan camp:

Pakistan has arrived in Sri Lanka with a team full of riches in almost all the sectors. They have recently announced a new captain for T20I and that is Mohammad Hafeez. All eyes will be on Mohammad Hafeez’s captaincy. Maintaining the team unity will be his biggest challenge.

After a decent show in BPL and Pakistan’s domestic T20 leagues, Mohammad Sami has made a comeback in the side. The kind of form Sami exhibited it is expected that he will add extra energy to this Pakistani attack. In the batting department, some fresh blood has been injected for the sake of upcoming World Cup.

It’s the bowling that is Pakistan’s strength with batting being unpredictable and the fragile fielding is the biggest worry for Pakistan. If Pakistan doesn’t grab the crucial catches when needed, if they don’t control their habit of mis-fielding then they might be counting the stars in the sky rather than celebrating a series win.

Lankan camp:

After Mahela Jayawardene returning as Sri Lanka’s captain, the Lankan camp seems a different unit – full of confidence and bustling with energy. Like Pakistan they have enough fuel in the bowling department and their advantage over Pakistan is solidity in the batting department and a fielding unit who are habituated to make half-chances into full chances.

Like Pakistan, Sri Lanka too has injected young guns in the squad keeping in mind the upcoming T20 World Cup. The return of Lasith Malinga will ensure exhibition of lethal yorkers while the charismatic Dilshan’s coming back in form is a huge bonus while the ever massive presence of Jayawardene and Sangakkara in the batting order gives Sri Lankan batting huge boost.

With soundness in all departments, Sri Lanka has the edge over Pakistan.

Playing conditions:

As in sub-continent, it’s bright sunshine in progress; except sweat from players’ head there won’t be any chance of watermarks. And the track at Hambantota will be a batting beauty. Plenty of battering for the bowlers is expected but quality bowlers will rip a good harvest.

Head to Head:

For Pakistan, three of their premium bowlers (Ajmal-Afridi-Gul) share 162 T20-career wickets within 9 four wickets and 1 five wickets haul. That’s quite competitive than Lankan’s batting trinity (Mahela-Dilshan-Sangakkara) with 2730 career runs among them including two centuries and 17 half-centuries.

Crunching numbers:

Ground Trivia:

> Hambantota will make its T20 debut today.

> Out of 4 ODI matches played here Sri Lanka has won twice while Pakistan has won once.

> 3 out of 4 times team batting first have registered a win.

Match results:

> 5 out of 7 times Pakistan have registered comprehensive win over Sri Lanka.

> Lowest total: 120 runs (18.1 overs) by Sri Lanka in August 2009

> Highest total: 189/6 (20 overs) by Pakistan in September 2007.

Top scorers:

Kumar Sangakkara 144 runs in 5 matches for Sri Lanka while Shoaib Malik 186 runs in 7 matches for Pakistan.

Top strikers:

Lasith Malinga 8 wickets in 5 matches while Umer Gul 12 wickets in 7 matches.

Individual achievements:

> Dilshan and Mahela being the only players to hold a century amongst these two teams.

> Mahela is 47 runs away to reach 1000 T20I runs.

> Umer Gul is the only bowler to notch up a 5-wicket haul.

Quotes:

Pakistan coach, Dav Whatmore -

“We had a pretty decent two weeks before we came here, finishing up with some practices that were attended by conservatively 15,000 people who have starved for cricket and they just loved them.”

Sri Lanka captain, Mahela Jayawardene -

“What makes them competitive is the sort of bowling options available, apart from the specialists.”

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