Pakistan will be up against Sri Lanka in the first of the three-match ODI series. This article provides details about Pakistan’s Playing 11 vs Sri Lanka for the first match of the series.
Pakistan Playing XI vs Sri Lanka- 1st ODI, Sri Lanka Tour of Pakistan 2025:
Openers: Fakhar Zaman, Saim Ayub
Pakistan would want to continue the momentum that the home team has on its side, courtesy of a win in the first ODI against Sri Lanka, having won the decider of the recently concluded series against South Africa.
The Pakistani selectors have shown faith in the core that took on South Africa and have named the same squad that featured in that particular series, except Hasan Nawaz, who has been released from the squad to play domestic cricket.
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Pakistan would want to replicate the same performance that the team delivered in the third ODI against South Africa while chasing a small target.
Having said that, despite a win in the game in question, the Shaheen Afridi-led side would be concerned about the form of Fakhar Zaman at the top of the order as he failed to open his account in back-to-back matches.
The home team would want the aggressive left-hander to get back among runs and play in his natural manner in the first ten overs in order to get the team off to a solid start against a decent Sri Lankan bowling lineup.
Fakhar’s partner, Saim Ayub, on the other hand, has developed himself into a spin bowling all-rounder who can be banked upon to deliver with both bat and ball and would want to keep up the good work against Sri Lanka.
Middle-order batsmen and all-rounders: Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Salman Ali Agha, Hussain Talat, Mohammad Nawaz
The middle order, which comprises names like Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, and Salman Ali Agha, did well to bail the team out of trouble on various occasions in the ODI series against South Africa.
However, all three experienced batters would wish for the case to be different in the opening match against Sri Lanka.
The likes of Babar, Rizwan, and Salman would hope for the openers to lay the platform for them to capitalize on and play with freedom to get the opposition bowlers under pressure.
The onus will be on the top five batters to score the bulk of the runs for the team and not depend on the batting depth that the team possesses to get the job done, something which was a consistent feature of the last ODI series.
Bowlers: Shaheen Afridi (c), Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah, Abrar Ahmed
It would be interesting to see how the pitch behaves during the first ODI between.
The reason is that Pakistan has opted to prepare spin-friendly tacks in the recent past, a move that has reaped rewards for them, and the home team is expected to dish out a similar surface for the upcoming match.
A spin-friendly wicket would mean that the Men in Green will go into the match with two specialist spinners and as many specialist fast bowlers
The responsibility will be on Shaheen Afridi, along with Saim Ayub, to pick wickets in the first hour of play to make things easy for other bowlers in the middle overs.
Shaheen will be assisted by Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf in the fast bowling department, while Saim Ayub will get the support of Mohammad Nawaz and Abrar Ahmed as the other two spinners in the playing XI.
