Shaheen Afridi backs Saim Ayub and admits his pace has dropped as the tri-series moves to Gaddafi Stadium Lahore. Pakistan will wear pink on Sunday for breast cancer awareness, and six schoolboys got a day in the nets with the stars.
LAHORE: The one-day international tri-series between Pakistan, England and Sri Lanka has moved from Rawalpindi to Lahore, where the remaining three league matches and the final will be played at Gaddafi Stadium, starting with Pakistan against England on Sunday.
Pakistan arrive unbeaten, top of the table with four points from two wins. Sri Lanka have two points and England, beaten twice, have none, leaving Harry Brook’s side needing to win on Sunday to keep their hopes of reaching the final alive.
The switch completes the series’ planned two-city schedule, with the first three games in Rawalpindi and the rest in Lahore. Pakistan play Sri Lanka on Tuesday, Sri Lanka meet England on Thursday, and the top two contest the final on Saturday, October 31. The city has spent the past fortnight getting the stadium ready for the matches and the final.
Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Mohsin Naqvi visited Gaddafi Stadium as the team trained, watching the players’ batting and bowling sessions. He met head coach Mike Hesson and the team manager, and spoke to the players.
Shaheen backs his openers
At the pre-match press conference, captain Shaheen Shah Afridi said Lahore’s conditions were different from Rawalpindi’s and the team combination would be chosen accordingly. “All the players know their responsibilities. If a change is needed, it will be made,” he said.
He backed Saim Ayub, whose two innings in the series have brought scores of 7 and 8. “Saim is a good player, and I hope he will perform for the team,” Shaheen said, adding that neither Saim nor Fakhar Zaman was being dropped. Fakhar, who made 16 against Sri Lanka and a first-ball duck against England, “plays an important role in the team”, he said, though Sahibzada Farhan could get a chance in one-day cricket if needed.
The captain was candid about his own form. He admitted his bowling speed had dropped but said he was still taking wickets, which he called encouraging. He took 3 for 55 in the series opener and went wicketless for 36 in seven overs against England. Young players were performing well and learning from their mistakes, he said, and the team would keep working hard.
Fast bowler Haris Rauf, often expensive in white-ball cricket, pushed back against criticism of the runs he concedes. “I am not the only one who gets hit for sixes. Every bowler in the world gets hit,” he said. Better results, he added, would come from scoring more runs and stopping the opposition from posting big totals. Rauf has taken four wickets in two matches, including 2 for 32 against England.
Pakistan’s top order has wobbled, but the middle order and bowlers have delivered. In the opener on October 18, Salman Ali Agha’s 107 off 90 balls, his fourth ODI century, lifted Pakistan to 305, and Shaheen, Rauf and Naseem Shah shared seven wickets to bowl Sri Lanka out for 268 and win by 37 runs.
Two days later, Pakistan crushed England by 87 runs. Hasan Nawaz top-scored with 79, and all-rounder Arafat Minhas followed a 59 with 6 for 40 as England were bowled out for 215 chasing 303.
England then lost an extraordinary game to Sri Lanka. Brook hit 202 in a total of 429 for 4, but Sri Lanka chased it down with two wickets and a ball to spare, one of the highest successful chases in ODI history, led by Pavan Rathnayake’s 130. That result put Sri Lanka on two points and left England bottom of the table.
Pakistan in pink
Sunday’s match has been dedicated to breast cancer awareness. Pakistan will wear a special pink kit, under a joint campaign by the PCB and Pink Ribbon, with pink stumps and awareness messages during play and England’s players and officials invited to wear pink ribbons, according to the board.
The PCB is also auctioning special fan shirts signed by Pakistan’s cricketers, including Shaheen Afridi and Babar Azam. The proceeds will pay for treatment for women with breast cancer who cannot afford it. Pink match shirts are also on sale at the Gaddafi Stadium shop and online.
The campaign comes in Breast Cancer Awareness Month, as the Punjab government pushes screening and free treatment for women in the province.
Schoolboys in the nets
Six young cricketers from the PCB’s School Cricket Talent Hunt programme joined the national team’s training session at Gaddafi Stadium, bowling in the nets and learning from the coaching staff.
Hesson praised the programme and credited Naqvi for it. The young leg-spinner and the fast bowlers had “outstanding ability”, he said, and training alongside the national side would help them develop. “Talent alone is not enough to become an international cricketer. Continuous hard work is also essential,” he said.
Babar Azam and Fakhar Zaman met the youngsters and talked them through the demands of international cricket. Fast bowler Abdul Rehman called the session a dream come true. “Practising with the national players at Gaddafi Stadium is like a dream coming true,” he said. Leg-spinner Muhammad Hasnain said he had learned important lessons about training from Babar and Fakhar.
The programme sits alongside Punjab’s wider push to find young athletes, including the province’s Youth Games.
Lahore offers a different test from Rawalpindi’s flat pitches, where 429 was not enough. Gaddafi Stadium’s surface has historically given spinners more help as the ball gets older, and the city holds rich ODI memories for Pakistan, as well as some painful ones. One unwelcome variable is the air: Lahore has topped global pollution rankings this week, and the 1 p.m. starts will test players’ endurance as smog season sets in.
Pakistan will expect a full house on Sunday. A win would put them all but certain of a place in the final in front of a home crowd on October 31.
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