It has to be pointed out that depite Sri Lanka’s third-innings score of 313, which set up a lead of 376, Pakistan chased down this target easily, inside four sessions of batting which points to bad decision making by the selectors and lacklustre captaincy by Mathews who should never have lost his grip on the game with no killer instinct showing but of course sans the weapons to kill with having relinquished them at the point of team selection where the new selection committee seems to be a bunch of greenhorns prone to whimsical choices leaning towards experimentation when for a crucial.rubber Test the team should have been fortified with the best players on offer. “Most of the players know what to expect in Sri Lanka”. You talk about lots of world-class players like Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, AB de Villiers, Joe Root, Michael Clarke, but Younis Khan gets passed by a bit, but he’s right up there. “That was not a small total to get, so obviously I am very disappointed”, Mathews said. “Younis Khan is in that bracket”.
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Sri Lanka, playing their first one-day series since the retirement of Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara from the shorter format after the World Cup, are also rebuilding for the future.
The visitors are now sitting at ninth position in the ODI ranking, and victory in this series is indispensable for them to keep alive their hopes of participating in the 2017 Champions Trophy, which will be played between the top eight teams. “We are ready.” Pakistan has not had a good run in ODI cricket of late. “We will need to take on the challenge and move on”.
Misbah said Younis had told the team a win was possible because the wicket was not helping the bowlers. Younis Khan was earmarking his approach into the historical past books by turning into exclusively the fifth participant from his nation to play one hundred Tests – an applaudable feat, contemplating the restricted variety of 5-day video games Pakistan function in.
“There were many standout performances through the series, Yasir Shah’s leg-spin bowling in all three Tests, Asad Shafiq and Azhar Ali’s centuries in first and second Test respectively and Sarfraz Ahmed batting in the first and third Test, but Younus Khan and Shan Masood 242-run stand for the third wicket shall remain etched in memory for long, PCB Chairman said”.
“I am glad the youngsters are doing so well”. Younis was voted man of the match.
The 37-year-old Younis, who came to bat after the fall of the second wicket, remained rock solid at one end during a seven-hour vigil in which he hit 18 boundaries.
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Sri Lanka missed the experience of left-arm spinner Rangana Herath, who was not selected, as young off-spinner Kaushal was hammered for 153 runs in his 31 overs.
