Pakistan vs Sri Lanka - (Source: X.com)
On Saturday, February 28, Pakistan and Sri Lanka locked horns for the do-or-die T20 World Cup 2026 match at the Pallekele Stadium in Kandy. Notably, Sri Lanka are out of the tournament, but Pakistan still have a bleak chance and the Salman Ali Agha-led are ready for the challenge.
Salman Agha and Dasun Shanaka walked for the toss and the luck favoured the Sri Lanka captain, who opted to field first. Talking about the team changes, Pakistan made three changes. They dropped Babar Azam, Salman Mirza and Saim Ayub.
For Sri Lanka, they also made two changes as Kusal Mendis has been ruled out of the game because of injury. Notably, it will be the first time that Babar Azam won't play a T20 World Cup game for Pakistan despite being named in the squad.
PAK vs SL: Playing XIs
Pakistan Playing XI : Sahibzada Farhan, Fakhar Zaman, Salman Ali Agha (c), Khawaja Nafay, Usman Khan (wk), Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Usman Tariq, Abrar Ahmed
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Sri Lanka Playing XI : Pathum Nissanka, Kamil Mishara (wk), Charith Asalanka, Pavan Rathnayake, Kamindu Mendis, Janith Liyanage, Dasun Shanaka (c), Dunith Wellalage, Dushmantha Chameera, Maheesh Theekshana, Dilshan Madushanka
PAK vs SL: Captains Thoughts
Salman Ali Agha (Pakistan Captain): "[On getting a chance to qualify for the semis] Yes, it's a massive opportunity. We just have to play the perfect game. Bat well. Bowl well. Field well [Happy with the toss result?] We would have bowled first. We just need to put a good total and try and restrict them.
[How do you approach this game?] Sometimes, it's easy. Sometimes, it's hard. It's easy to go out there and play your strokes. Sometimes, it's hard. We will just try to play our game.
Dasun Shanaka (Sri Lanka Captain): "We are going to bowl first. It's a really good pitch and we feel that later on there will be dew. So, we will chase.
(On ending the tournament with a win) We have some good players in our team. We need to do our basics right. We didn't do our basics right in order to pull out a win in the last two games but here, we need to get things right in all the three departments.
Why Have Pakistan Benched Babar Azam and Saim Ayub?
It is a crucial game for Pakistan and they need all aggressive batters in the team because of the current situation. To qualify for the next round, the Men in Green now need to beat Sri Lanka by 65 runs and for that they need to have a big total on the board.
Babar Azam, on the other hand, has the lowest strike-rate by a batter with minimum 500 runs in T20I. Therefore, it was logical for him to be benched.
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