Five Things To Keep An Eye Out For During Pakistan's Upcoming SriLanka Test Series 



Even Pakistan's most pessimistic supporters were persuaded by the favorable draw in the previous World Test Championship cycle that the men in green might advance to the final.


Babar's young men were planned for to confront a distinguishably more fragile resistance away from home, in Sri Lanka, the West Indies, and Bangladesh, though they were booked to have three significant SENA nations in Australia, Britain, and New Zealand, in what was charged to be a marquee home season — something that had sidestepped them for north of 10 years and a half because of safety worries on nearby shores.


The truth, nonetheless, was likened to slipping on a banana strip at an extravagant celebration, as the pleased cricketing country figured out how to win four out of six away Tests, with a misfortune each in Jamaica and Galle, just to go winless in eight games on home turf.


They then lost their first Test whitewash on home soil to the Bazballers of England and two stalemates against New Zealand shortly after. To make matters worse, Babar Azam had acquired the unfortunate distinction of becoming the first Pakistan captain in history to suffer four consecutive home Test defeats. So indeed, to say that they messed up would be putting it mildly to a tremendous extent.


On the brilliant side, all of the previously mentioned is in the past currently, as group Pakistan is set to set out on another two-extended venture in cricket's most esteemed design, beginning with a two-match Test visit through Sri Lanka, which starts on July 16 in Galle.


The outcome of this Sri Lankan tour could determine Pakistan's chances of appearing in the final two years, raising the stakes of this fight significantly. 


As Pakistan's cricketers attempt to resume their duties in the longest format, here are five things to keep an eye out for now that you have all that context.


The Position Of Third



Shan Masood plays a shot during the fourth day of the third and last Test match between Sri Lanka and Pakistan at the Pallekele Worldwide Cricket Arena in Pallekele on July 6, 2015. — AFP/Document

7,000, 400, and two runs at a normal of 42.26, including 19 hundred and 35 fifties, scored over a range of 97 Tests. That is the means by which Azhar Ali's record peruses in Pakistani whites, who resigned from worldwide cricket toward the finish of 2022, in the wake of having been a pillar at number three for north of 10 years.


Those are not easy to fill, and left-hander Shan Masood, who was born in Kuwait and had played for Derbyshire for a decade and had a great season in the County Championship, was given the task immediately following Azhar's departure.


Shan, on the other hand, scored 3, 10, and 20 in three innings of batting at the first drop against New Zealand. He scored 35 runs at number four in his last innings of the series, because of Mir Hamza being advanced in front of him as night guardian, and his typical batting at one down is a pitiful 26.83 across six endeavors — not a long way behind his vocation normal of 28.30 in 28 Tests.


All things considered, Masood flaunts a great record in the singular Test he has played in Sri Lankan conditions, averaging 69 with the bat, politeness of a fourth innings hundred in Pallekele as far as possible back in 2015. Shan is likely to start at number three in this series thanks to his 125 runs, which helped Misbah's team reach a massive target of 377 — Pakistan's highest chase in Test match history — and his quick-fire 83 off just 67 deliveries in the current tour game.


On the other hand, Shan is 33 years of age and is contending with the enormous 21-year-old Mohammad Hurraira from Sialkot, who midpoints a gigantic 68.24 in 24 Five star games, turning into the second-most youthful triple centurion in Pakistan's homegrown circuit barely a year prior, just behind the unbelievable Javed Miandad.


Turn Bowling Assets



Pakistan's Abrar Ahmed celebrates in the wake of taking the wicket of Britain's Ben Stirs up in Multan on December 9, 2022. — Reuters/File Spin bowling is crucial to any team's success in Sri Lanka, especially during Test cricket. Also, in Pakistan's past visit to the island country, their best-performing spinner was Mohammad Nawaz, who represented 10 wickets in four innings, at about 26 runs each.


Although those figures are respectable, Pakistan's spinners lacked precision for the most part, which was a major reason why Babar & Co. were unable to win the series.


Subsequent to being ruined by Saeed Ajmal and Yasir Shah's prosperity for 10 years — the previous winning Pakistan Test matches practically without any help, and the last option breaking the record for the speediest bowler to 200 Test wickets — Pakistan wound up in somewhat of a pickle, taking everything into account.


However, it's possible that this time will be different. Collaborating Nawaz, Nauman Ali, and Salman Ali Agha — three spinners who were available on the 2022 visit — will be the youthful leg-break sensation Abrar Ahmed, who stepped through 11 wickets on Examination match debut versus Britain in Multan in December of last year, and has an astounding 104 scalps in his possession in only 18 Top of the line installations — a wonderful measurement.


Abrar is a special leg-spinner, to such an extent that he essentially depends on his fingers to add insurgencies to the ball, rather than his wrists, and will represent a new test to Sri Lanka's skilled batting big guns. It remains to be seen whether that challenge will be sufficiently difficult. However, Pakistan fans have every reason to be happy.


The Wicket-Keeping Problem




A picture of Mohammad Rizwan (from left) and Sarfaraz Ahmed together. — ESPNCricinfo/Document

The last time Pakistan played a Test Series, they made one very eminent change to their setup. Veteran gloveman Sarfaraz Ahmed made a re-visitation of the playing XI after a hole of almost four years, supplanting the generally out-of-structure whiz wicket-guardian, Mohammad Rizwan.


As for exhibitions with the bat, the previous Pakistan captain succeeded to the point that he serenely stowed the Player of the Series grant, finishing as the main run-scorer with 335 runs in four innings at a stunning normal of 83.75, piling up three half-hundreds of years and a game-saving ton simultaneously, playing had an urgent impact in guaranteeing that Pakistan didn't surrender to a third back to back Test Series rout at home.


Behind the stumps, in any case, Sarfaraz had all the earmarks of being a sorry excuse for his previous self, being at real fault for a large group of blunders, which cost Pakistan beyond a doubt in the field.


In the longest format, both stalwarts average over 38 with the bat, but Sarfaraz, the flawless spinner he is, averages a staggering 78.16 in five Tests in Sri Lanka, which is significantly higher than Rizwan's rather average of 30 in four innings there.


Taking all of these factors into consideration, it will be fascinating to see if Pakistan can field both players in one or two Tests to maximize Sarfaraz's batting utility against spin and Rizwan's efficiency as a wicketkeeper.


While that likely could be an aggressive thought, it is certainly something Babar Azam and Award Bradburn ought to consider, or contemplate upon in any event, in the development of Galle. Remember that Rizwan is Pakistan's assigned bad habit skipper for this visit, which might actually muddle matters.


Saud Shakeel — The Abroad Test Player



Not many players have needed to sit tight for their chance in Pakistan's contemporary red-ball arrangement however much Saud Shakeel has. The center request hitter was first chosen for the Test crew in the mid-year of 2020, when Pakistan was headed toward playing a Test Series in Britain, in what was their most memorable long organization task in the post-pandemic period. It was only after they facilitated the very resistance in December 2022 that Saud was at last given his Test cap.


The Karachi southpaw went on to score 580 runs at an average of 72.5 in five home Test matches against formidable New Zealand and England opponents, scoring five fifties and his first Test century in just 10 innings.


As momentous a beginning as that is, Saud is yet to address Pakistan in an abroad Test match, because of which it stays a secret whether he is an all-conditions hitter. Shakeel failed to score more than 35 runs in five innings this season for Yorkshire in the County Championship, averaging a miserable 14.2 runs per innings.


There is some point of reference, nonetheless, with regard to how he might passage on Sri Lanka's sluggish and low turners. The now-27-year-old technician led the Shaheens in two unofficial Test matches against Sri Lanka A at the end of 2021. In the second match, he scored a century and averaged 127 with the bat in two innings, even though he was the opener.


Shakeel plays the ball late, is compact in his strokeplay, and comes across as a batter who is technically very sound in addition to being a delightful player off the back foot, despite the fact that that sample size is without a doubt too small.


Conventional wisdom holds that Saud will perform well in Asian conditions, but how he handles the pressures of playing for the national team overseas is something that cricket fans are certainly interested in.


The Speed Assault



During the fifth and final day of the second Test between Pakistan and West Indies at Sabina Park on August 24, 2021, Shaheen Afridi of Pakistan celebrates Kemar Roach's dismissal. — AFP

Maybe the absolute most astonishing possibility of Pakistan's impending Test Series versus Sri Lanka is that observers will, at last, get to see Shaheen Shah Afridi in real life with the red ball and by.


The deadly left-arm seamer, who is one of Pakistan's most significant resources across each of the three configurations, has stored 99 wickets in a vocation traversing 25 Tests, at a noteworthy normal of 24.86 with the ball close by.


Shaheen will be raring to go in search of his hundredth Test victim after a year-long hiatus from the format, which he holds in very high regard, after injuring his knee on Pakistan's previous tour of Sri Lanka.


What is seriously fascinating, notwithstanding, is that Pakistan has tended to go in with a speedily weighty assault on turn cordial surfaces, in a bid to expand their solidarity, which has perpetually been quick bowling, starting from the very beginning itself.


It should not come as a surprise for Pakistan to field three pacers in Galle, given the team's composition and the recent tour game. They have three right-arm pacers, Naseem Shah, Hasan Ali, and Aamir Jamal, in addition to Shaheen. The latter two also provide some cushion with the bat.


To top it all off, Pakistan lost the Test match in Sri Lanka in the 2022 Series when they used spinners in their lineup and won the Test match when they used a pace-heavy attack.


The Galle track has customarily been viewed as a spinner's heaven, where batting fourth can end up being an undertaking and 3/4, so Pakistan's bowling procedure could characterize the result of this Test series. The onus will be on Babar and the group the executives, to survey the pitch and playing conditions to the best of their aggregate capacities, and settle on a decision in like manner.


In addition to producing podcasts with renowned cricket journalist Jarrod Kimber, making frequent appearances as a cricket expert on ABN news, performing voiceovers, and hosting Twitter spaces for GAME Sports Management, the author, a former IT consultant, also works as a cricket correspondent and video content lead at Grassroots Cricket. He tweets at @DeafMango


Header photograph: Pakistan's players stroll back to the structure toward the finish of the principal day of the subsequent cricket Test match between Pakistan and New Zealand at the Public Arena in Karachi on Jan 2.