Sri Lanka eye fresh challenge as Pakistan series gets underway

Time was when a tour of Pakistan was something cricketers eagerly looked forward to a chance to criss cross a country where the warmth of its people matched the spice of its biryani and masala chai.

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Pavan Rathnayake a prolific run scorer in domestic cricket is set to make his debut during the tour of Pakistan. Pakistanis are expected to provide the opposition and their batsmen are expected to come hard at the Sri Lankans and their bowlers are expected to maintain line and length and not allow the batsmen to run around this time. On their day.

Those were days when cities like Multan, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Sialkot and Karachi rolled out the red carpet for visiting sides. Not this time. For the three-week assignment, Sri Lanka will shuttle only between Lahore and Rawalpindi, missing out on the rest of that cricket-mad nation.

The first of the three ODIs bowls off today in Rawalpindi, barely half an hour’s drive from the capital, Islamabad. The city will also host Sri Lanka’s curtain-raiser in the tri-nation series involving Zimbabwe before the caravan moves to Lahore for the remaining fixtures.