PAK vs SL 8th Match Prediction

PAK vs SL Team Previews

Pakistan

Pakistan wasn’t in the best of forms in the run-up to this tournament. It was eliminated in the Super Four stage during the Asia Cup and also lost both its warm-up matches. However, they did manage to make a winning start to their campaign by defeating the Netherlands in the opening fixture.

Asked to bat first, Pakistan lost 3 wickets inside the first 10 overs with just 48 runs on the board. However, a solid partnership between Mohammad Rizwan and Saud Shakeel stabilized the innings and helped steer the team to a respectable total.

The opening pair of Fakhar Zaman and Imam Ul-Haq hasn’t been at their fluent best of late as they have managed to put up just one 50+ partnership in the last 8 outings. Pakistan will need them to get back among runs soon if wants to do well against quality opponents.

Babar Azam will be their key batsman in the middle order. The team has some quality all-rounders in the form of Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, and Shadab Khan, who provide depth to batting. The pace trio of Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf, and Hasan Ali bowled well to pick up 6 wickets between them in the last match.

However, the lack of a specialist spinner may cost the team some runs during the middle overs. 

Sri Lanka

After registering a record 13-match winning streak earlier this year, Sri Lanka has seen a sudden dip in form over the last few weeks. They suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of India in the Asia Cup Finals and lost both its warm-up games.

Their start to the main event wasn’t that good either, as South Africa trumped them by a massive 102 runs.

Playing without some of their key bowlers including Maheesh Theekshana, Wanindu Hasaranga, and Dushamantha Chameera has exposed the fault lines in Sri Lankan bowling. The team conceded a record 428 runs in the match against South Africa and had no chance of recovering after that abysmal performance.

Kasun Rajitha, Matheesha Pathirana, and Dilshan Madushanka will lead the pace attack here. All 3 of them were taken for more than 8.5 runs per over in the last match and will need to bowl a better line and length in this match.

The spin attack is pretty thin with young Dunith Wellalage being the only specialist spinner. Coming to the batting, Kusal Mendis is in good form and will be the key batsman for Sri Lanka in this match. The opening pair of Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Perera hasn’t been that impressive of late.

After a prolonged stretch of poor form with the bat, skipper Dasun Shanaka managed to get a half-century in the last match and that will be taken as a big positive. Along with Shanaka, Sri Lanka has a couple of other all-rounders like Charith Asalanka and Dhananjaya de Silva, who can play an important role with the bat as well as the ball.