Shoaib Akhtar welcomes Test cricket to his home city Rawalpindi in Pakistan

After a decade of absence, the longest format of the game is finally returned to Pakistan. The Sri Lankan cricket team agreed to play a two-match Test series against Pakistan this November in the latter’s home country. The first-ever Test match taking place in Pakistan is in the city of Rawalpindi where the great Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar grew up or we can refer to him as the fastest bowler ever lived in the history of cricket.

The Rawalpindi express as they call him, Shoaib Akhtar became quite emotional while tweeting about the return of Test cricket to his home country Pakistan after more than ten years of absence. He looked happier because of the fact that the very first Test is taking place in his home city, Rawalpindi.

Akhtar thinks that when players play at their home grounds in front of their home crowd cheering for them, they become heroes. And when the young guys will look up to these heroes, they will be inspired to take up this sport and try to become future greats of this gentlemen’s game.

Shoaib Akhtar penned an emotional message on his Twitter handle

On his official Twitter handle Akhtar penned a message, “I welcome Test Cricket back to Pakistan. Specially, to my city Rawalpindi. When your players play at home, they become heroes, this is what inspires a young generation to take up a sport and idolize greatness. #PAKvSL #Rawalpindi”

The Test at Rawalpindi will be the first match to take place at this venue after the ban. The limited-overs matches which took place in the past in between Pakistan and Sri Lanka took place in Lahore and Karachi. This will be the first international match taking place at the venue in fifteen years and the first Test match to be played in thirteen years.

The first Test match is going to be played between December 11th and December 15th at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium in Rawalpindi while the second and the last Test going to take place at the National Stadium which is located in Karachi from December 19th to December 23rd. Yes, this is a short series but it will kick-start a new era of cricket on the Pakistan soil which will provide a new platform for budding cricketers as well as for the Pakistan cricket as a whole.

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