Pakistan take control in Rawalpindi as Sri Lanka slip to 114 for three

Pakistan’s young side has taken a firm grip on the first Test against Sri Lanka in Rawalpindi. After declaring on 434 for nine on the second day, the hosts bowled the visitors to 114 for three by the close, a deficit of 320 runs, before bad light ended play after only 27.1 overs.

The innings that set it up

Pakistan resumed on 281 for five. Saud Shakeel, who had reached 57 on the first day, carried on as the anchor and added 96 for the sixth wicket with debutant Ghazi Ghori, who made 48. Saud missed a hundred by seven runs, falling for 93 off 199 balls, caught behind off Asitha Fernando.

The next debutant, Arafat Minhas, hit 52 off 72 balls with nine fours and a six before Dilshan Madushanka dismissed him. Razaullah added a quick 10 and the declaration came in the 107th over.

The innings was unusual for the number of fifties: five batters passed 50, and three of them were debutants.

Batter	Runs	Note
Saud Shakeel	93	199 balls, top score
Tayyab Arif	57	Debutant
Arafat Minhas	52	Debutant, 72 balls, nine fours and a six
Mohammad Taha	51	Debutant
Babar Azam	50+	Captain, half-century
Ghazi Ghori	48	Debutant, added 96 with Saud

Fernando and Madushanka took three wickets each.

Sri Lanka under pressure

The pace attack went to work quickly. Mohammad Abbas had opener Pasindu Sooriyabandara caught behind for a duck, and debutant Saqib Khan then dismissed Dinesh Chandimal for 1. Lahiru Udara made a determined 42 before Saqib took him as well, caught behind by Ghazi.

Kamindu Mendis and Dhananjaya de Silva then put together an unbeaten 49-run partnership. Mendis was the more fluent, on 40, with de Silva on 22. Fading light brought the umpires to call an early close, which spared Sri Lanka further trouble.

Why this day mattered

Before the series, Babar Azam said he wanted a “different team” with young players free to “express themselves”. Day two was an early test of that idea. Three debutants scoring fifties, and another taking wickets with the new ball, is the kind of start that supports it. It does not guarantee that the approach will work against tougher attacks, since the Sri Lankan attack took nine wickets in the innings and Pakistan will face stronger opposition.

Pakistan are ninth, last, in the World Test Championship table, and even a 2-0 series win would not bring them back into contention for the final. The aim for this series is more modest: results and, above all, evidence that the new group can carry the team forward.

Sri Lanka’s reply in numbers

Sri Lanka scored at a little over four runs an over in their short innings, 114 in 27.1 overs, so they were not tied down, but they lost three of their top four before Mendis and de Silva steadied things. Two of the three wickets fell to the new-ball bowlers caught behind the stumps, which shows how much movement and bounce the Pakistan attack found early on. Light was poor enough for the umpires to take the players off with the visitors still facing a deficit of more than 300.

The head-to-head record also favours the hosts: before this match Pakistan led Sri Lanka 23-17 in 59 Tests, with 19 draws, according to Dawn’s pre-match figures. A big first-innings lead on a surface that has so far looked good for batting puts them in a strong position to extend it.

What happens next

• Day three: Sri Lanka resume with Mendis and de Silva and need roughly 120 more runs to avoid the follow-on, which Pakistan can enforce when a side is 200 or more behind.
• Pakistan’s plan: Take the remaining seven wickets quickly, and decide whether to enforce the follow-on if the lead stays large.
• The weather: Bad light has already cost overs, so time may matter in the final result.
• Next Test: The second Test starts at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium on November 17.

For the junior side, see our report on Usman Khan’s century in the U-19 Asia Cup, and for the white-ball side our report on the tri-series final toss in Lahore.