The most recent Test between Pakistan and Sri Lanka was also the last time Pakistan took to the field in cricket’s longest format, six months ago in the United Arab Emirates. On that occasion a tightly fought three-match series ended in a 1-1 draw, which Pakistan snatched in the final match, at Sharjah, by chasing down 302 for the loss of five wickets in just 57.3 overs.
The conditions in Sri Lanka for the two-Test series that starts at Galle International Stadium on Wednesday will be similar to those that the teams faced in the UAE, albeit possibly slightly easier for the batsmen, and there’s no reason to assume it won’t be equally close this time—but that six-month Test-playing hiatus may just swing it away from the visitors.
Indeed, these are similarly balanced teams, with strikingly similar strengths and weaknesses. Sri Lanka probably enjoys a slight edge in the batting and Pakistan in the bowling, but both possess talented but flaky batting lineups propped up by two brilliant batsmen coming toward the end of their careers. Both teams have fine left- and right-hand finger-spinner combinations and young seam attacks featuring one very promising bowler and several others yet to establish themselves.
This has translated into mixed results for both teams. Sri Lanka has ridden an emotional roller-coaster within only the past couple of months, following a historic 1-0 series victory away to England with a rare home series loss. Admittedly it was 1-0 to South Africa, to whom there’s rarely been much shame in losing recently.
The Proteas closed the series down as professionally as ever, brilliantly overcoming their unfamiliarity with the conditions and almost total absence of spinners to win the first match of the series with reverse swing, and draw the second with a preposterously effective stonewalling mission on a sharply turning final-day pitch.
However, there are still more reasons for optimism than pessimism for Sri Lanka. The team is ranked sixth in the world, but with a 2-0 victory over Pakistan it would overtake either England or India and be close to overtaking both, depending on the result of the tight five-match series those two teams are currently slugging out.
These are the final two Tests in the career of the legendary Mahela Jayawardene, and while Sri Lanka’s batting continues to rely on him and even more on Kumar Sangakkara, its possible batting superiority in this series comes from the emergence of a couple of younger players, Kaushal Silva as a reliable opener and captain Angelo Mathews as a dramatically effective middle-order counter-puncher.
But at least two places in the top six aren’t settled, soon to become three when Jayawardene retires: Dimuth Karunaratne, Dinesh Chandimal and Lahiru Thirimanne have all failed to impress, with only the latter, the official vice-captain, keeping his place in the squad for the series.
Debutant Niroshan Dickwella, 21, at least, was impressive with both bat and gloves against South Africa, adding to Sri Lanka’s embarrassment of wicketkeeping riches: Silva, Tharanga and Sangakkara are all glovemen, as is the dropped Chandimal and the injured Prasanna Jayawardene. He was first choice behind the stumps until recently.
Particularly with leading seamer Chaminda Eranga possibly unavailable for Galle through injury, Sri Lanka’s paucity of support spinners is a worry; Ajantha Mendis was totally ineffective against South Africa, Sachitra Senanyake is struggling with the legality of his action and reliable part-time Tillakaratne Dilshan has retired. But it’s still a problem most sides around the world would like to have, given the quality of the established bowlers, Rangana Herath and the latest discovery, Dilruwan Perera. With the retirement of England’s Graeme Swann, Perera has automatically become the world’s leading light among classical, side-on off-spinners who only turn it in one direction.
Before the previous Sri Lanka series, Pakistan had pulled off a very creditable 1-1 draw with South Africa in the UAE in October 2013, but also managed to lose a Test away to Zimbabwe. The travails of others— mainly England and India—have propelled Pakistan to third in the rankings despite not winning a Test series since 2012; admittedly, it hasn’t played many.
This lack of Tests is at least helping to prolong the career of the single biggest reason for Pakistan’s upturn in form in the past four years, its captain Misbah-ul-Haq, Test cricket’s most underrated player and at 40 its oldest. Calm, canny and in control, perhaps his greatest ability has been to hold together a team torn apart by a spot-fixing scandal during a period when it hasn’t even been able to play at home.
Misbah must retire soon, with 36-year-old Younis Khan not too far behind; the biggest challenge for Pakistan is finding the next generation of players around which to build its batting. Asad Shafiq, for example, was described by Misbah in the runup to the series as “promising”, but he’s 28, made his debut four years ago, and has a slightly below-par average of 36.60 from his 26 Tests.
Similarly, the team will be hoping Azhar Ali hasn’t forgotten how he made his superb 103 to anchor the chase against South Africa at Sharjah: 39.14 isn’t the worst average, but that was only his fifth ton in 60 innings. The combative Ahmed Shehzad has made a good start at the top of the order but no more than that, while much is still expected of the recalled Umar Akmal, who hasn’t played a Test in almost three years and is still only 24. A thrilling one-day clouter of the ball who’s never proved he has the temperament for Tests, with an average 35.82 in his 16, Umar competes with Shafiq for the final batting place.
As with the retirement of Dilshan for Sri Lanka, so the axing of Mohammad Hafeez for his ghastly batting form robs Pakistan of one of its more effective slow bowlers, who was also heir presumptive to the captaincy not so long ago. Indeed, the inclusion of only two spinners in the 15-man squad to tour a country that fielded three spinners and a solitary seamer in its most recent home Test is a bit of a shock; this looks more like a party to tour England or Australia.
Both spinners should play: One, Abdur Rehman is a fine bowler; the other, Saeed Ajmal, is the best spinner in the world, although he only managed 10 wickets at 42.10 in the previous Sri Lanka series. They will be backed by the excellent left-arm seamer Junaid Khan, the sort of intelligent, disciplined seamer who can extract something from Sri Lanka’s spin-friendly tracks.
Any of Mohammad Talha, Rahat Ali or the recalled Wahab Riaz could take the new ball with Junaid, but none is likely to bowl many overs; this will mainly be a matter of spinners versus batsmen. Between two evenly matched sides, home advantage and the visitors’ ring-rustiness makes Sri Lanka the slight favorite.
