Pakistan national cricket team is back in Sri Lanka for a nearly two-month long tour and the official press conference was held on Friday evening at Taj Samudra hotel.
Speaking at the media briefing, Sri Lanka Cricket interim committee president, Sidath Wettimuny shared his views, “Very warm welcome to our friends from Pakistan. I have to confess, when it comes to Pakistan, I am bit biased because I have nothing but exciting memories with them. I am sure we will have a very interesting series and I think in many ways both teams are going through similar stages. I just hope we have great cricket played in the best spirit and may the better team win. “
The Sri Lanka captain, Angelo Mathews added his thoughts on the upcoming home series, “I firstly welcome Misbah and his team. I hope you all would have a pleasant stay here. Pakistan are no strangers to us when it comes to cricket, recently we have been playing each other quite a lot. I am very happy with the squad and we have been practicing really hard for the last couple of months. It’s a mixture of youth and experience; we don’t have much experience players. Hopefully we can play to potential and win this series. I am really confident that we can outplay Pakistan. “
The Pakistan Test captain, Misbah Ul-Haq addressed the gathering and revealed his opinion, “This is my 8th and 9th tour to Sri Lanka and I have always enjoyed playing here. It is like playing at home because the people here are very supportive to us. We are really good friends off the field and competitive on the field. Last few series’ here we lost and this time we want to badly win. I think it will be a tough series as the Sri Lankans are very hard to beat at home.”
Pakistan head coach, Waqar Younis expressed his thoughts on the challenge ahead, “Sri Lankans are tough at home and they have proved it for the last decade. We have struggled in the past but this time around we are here to give them a tough task.”
Sri Lanka head coach Marvan Atapattu made positive points on the fitness issues his team had in the past, “Englishmen Michael Main joined us from 1st of June. We really do consider a lot when it comes to fitness and conditioning. If we are to play Test cricket with the same intensity we have for ODI cricket, we need to maintain very good fitness levels. Now, we have set standards for all the players to achieve in order to represent Sri Lanka.”
Both camps will have different strategies and game plans to work on and they are without a doubt, familiar foes in the game of cricket. Misbah’s Pakistan team have struggled tremendously against the likes of Rangana Herath in the past, the 41-year old right hander added his views on tackling him in the upcoming series, “ Yes, we know he is very attacking in Sri Lanka, last time we had faced many troubles facing him. But we have very good players of spin in our team. Everybody’s just working on their techniques and I feel at this level, we somehow got to handle him cautiously. “
The Sri Lanka squad comprises many known and talented faces, Angelo Mathews made few vital points on the team composition as well, “We have about 3 to 4 wicket-keepers in our top seven. Most probably Dinesh Chandimal will keep wickets but we have not yet come to a final decision. All the selected 15 players are capable of making the final XI. It is a good headache to have during the selections. We will have to adjust according to the situations in choosing our final XI.”
Pakistan tour of Sri Lanka 2015 fixtures
1st Test: June 17 – June 21 at Galle International Stadium (10.00 local)
2nd Test: June 25 – June 29 at P. Sara Oval Stadium (10.00 local)
3rd Test: July 3 – July 7 at Pallekelle International Stadium (10.00 local)
1st ODI: 11th July at Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium (10.00 local)
2nd ODI: 15th July at Pallekelle International Stadium (14.30 local)
3rd ODI: 19th July at R. Premadasa International Stadium (14.30 local)
4th ODI: 22nd July at R. Premadasa International Stadium (14.30 local)
5th ODI: 26th July at Mahinda Rajapakse International Stadium, Hambanthota (14.30 local)
1st T20: 30th July at R. Premadasa International Stadium (19.00 local)
2nd T20: 1st August at R. Premadasa International Stadium (19.00 local)
