ICC World Cup 2019 – Match 11: PAK vs SL – Pakistan Predicted Playing XI
By beating England in their last game, Pakistan announced themselves and go into the game against Sri Lanka as the favourites.
The unpredictably entertaining Pakistan cricket team stunned the hosts England in their last encounter. The 1992 champions defeated the team by 14 runs in the most dramatic of encounters. Passion, aggression, self-belief – all these characteristics were clearly visible in their style of play in this match. After the heart-breaking and embarrassing loss to the Windies in the tournament opener, something of this sorts was required to lift the spirits up.
With this boosted morale, the team is all set to face Sri Lanka in their third encounter. The opposition is clearly not at its best and thus Pakistan will be eyeing a big win. Pakistan will not want to tinker around with their winning eleven and is most likely to field them all in the next game as well.
Here is the Predicted Playing XI for Pakistan:
Openers (Imam-ul-Haq, Fakhar Zaman)
It has been a slow start to the campaign for the Pakistan openers Imam-ul-Haq and Fakhar Zaman. Both of them have done well in recent times. In the last game against England, they set the tone by getting off to good starts. However, the duo has failed to convert them into substantial scores leading to a huge letdown.
Imam and Fakhar scored 44 and 36 respectively against England and added 82 runs for the opening wicket. The openers, though, are capable of much more than this. They will be eager to make an impression when they face Sri Lanka and this will also help increase their confidence ahead of the all-important fixture against India.
Middle Order (Babar Azam, Sarfaraz Ahmed (c & wk), Asif Ali)
Babar Azam, the most consistent performer for Pakistan, will shoulder the responsibilities of batting at three. In the last 5 games, the 24-year-old scored 295 runs at an average of 59. He struck two fifties and a hundred in these games. Azam played well in the last game and scored 63 runs. Against Sri Lanka, if he manages to get a similar kind of start, he will want to settle at nothing less than getting to the triple figures.
Sarfaraz Ahmed will either bat at four or five depending upon the situation of the game. He did well against England after he promoted himself up to the order against England and scored a quickfire half-century. Asif Ali and Shoaib Malik are expected to juggle around with their batting position depending upon the over in which a wicket falls. If it is towards the end of the innings, Asif is expected to bat higher.
All Rounders (Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Shadab Khan)
After his promising performance in the last game, Mohammad Hafeez might have sealed his number four spot. He played aggressive cricket and took the attack to the bowlers in the middle overs. Hafeez hit 8 fours and a couple of sixes in his knock where he scored 84 runs from just 62 balls. The 38-year-old, though, should look to keep the consistency maintained.
Malik scored 8 runs in the last game and didn’t have much to do as he walked out to bat towards the end of the innings. He even three overs and dismissed Ben Stokes with a brilliant delivery. Shadab Khan opened the bowling against England and did a decent job. He picked up the important wicket of Jason Roy early on and further bettered his day by dismissing the first centurion of the tournament, Joe Root.
Bowlers (Wahab Riaz, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Amir)
Both Wahab Riaz and Mohammad Amir might have been expensive in the last outing. But these numbers do not reveal the complete story. The duo did a fabulous job towards the end of the innings to restrict England to 334 runs. Amir even dismissed the dangerous Jos Buttler soon after the wicket-keeper got to his hundred and got his team back into the game. While Amir picked up two wickets, Riaz added three wickets to his tally.
Hasan Ali is yet to get back to his best. He conceded 39 runs in four overs against Windies and gave away 66 runs in 10 overs against England. Ali is yet to pick up a wicket in the tournament and must do it in the next game at least to hold on to his spot in the eleven.
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