It has been a hard two days for Pakistani T20I team after they were knocked out of the Asia Cup final’s contention by Bangladesh on Wednesday. Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi decided to field in the dead rubber against Sri Lanka who are being led by Dinesh Chandimal, their third captain in the tournament, after Angelo Mathews’ calf strain forced him to sit out.
Afridi said they were bowling to avoid the dew later on. Pakistan brought in debutant Iftikhar Ahmed, left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz and left-arm quick Wahab Riaz and left out the out-of-form Khurram Manzoor, Mohammad Sami and Anwar Ali. For Sri Lanka, Mathews was replaced by wicketkeeper-batsman Niroshan Dickwella.
The pitch was very dry and hard, and had lots of grass clippings. Spinners could be a factor but it would generally be good for batting.
Pakistan 1 Mohammad Hafeez, 2 Sharjeel Khan, 3 Sarfraz Ahmed, 4 Umar Akmal, 5 Shoaib Malik, 6 Shahid Afridi (capt), 7 Iftikhar Ahmed, 8 Wahab Riaz, 9 Mohammad Nawaz, 10 Mohammad Amir, 11 Mohammad Irfan
Sri Lanka 1 Dinesh Chandimal (capt), 2 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 3 Shehan Jayasuriya, 4 Chamara Kapugedara, 5 Niroshan Dickwella (wk), 6 Milinda Siriwardana, 7 Dasun Shanaka, 8 Thisara Perera, 9 Nuwan Kulasekara, 10 Rangana Herath, 11 Dushmantha Chameera
