Pakistan will compete Sri Lanka In the third match of the Pakistan T20I triangular series. This article provides details about the playing 11 of Pakistan vs Sri Lanka for the third match of the series.
Pakistan Playing XI vs Sri Lanka – Pakistan T20I Tri Series 2025, Match 3:
Openers: Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub
Pakistan will want to sort out their batting performance if they want to put up a complete performance in the upcoming match against Sri Lanka, as they have made things difficult for themselves while chasing the target in the opening match of the tri-series.
Trailing 54-4 while chasing the target of 148, the Men in Green found themselves in a spot of bother and needed an all-round effort from Mohammad Nawaz to guide the team to victory.
For this to happen, the home team will have to rely on their openers and number three batsman to get off to good starts and score a large number of runs for the team.
The opening pair of Sahibzada Farhan and Saim Ayub, who have shown glimpses of their potential, have not been able to perform consistently and will hope to do so in the match against Sri Lanka.
Individually too, both the players have been hit or miss as they have not been able to convert the starts they got on most occasions, which would be on their minds while batting in the first six overs.
If Farhan and Ayub get going, it will increase the hosts’ chances of victory as the middle order will have the platform to take advantage both while batting first or while chasing the target.
Middle-order batsmen and all-rounders: Babar Azam, Salman Agha (captain), Usman Khan (wicketkeeper), Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Nawaz, Faheem Ashraf.
If we talk about the middle order, there were a lot of changes in it in the first match. The most notable among these was the batting position of Fakhar Zaman.
Fakhar, who is an opening batsman, came in to bat at number five to negotiate with the spinners, which could be part of a long-term strategy given the left-handed batsman’s aggressive gameplay against spinners.
Apart from Fakhar, another new entrant in the middle order was Usman Khan, who has got few chances so far but took advantage of them by forming crucial partnerships with Fakhar and Mohammad Nawaz to lead the team to victory.
Amidst the team’s lower middle-order defence, the team management will be somewhat worried about the form of captain Salman Ali Aga, who has not been able to perform well since becoming the captain.
The hosts will want him to score runs against Sri Lanka along with Babar Azam, who was out for a duck against Zimbabwe.
Bowlers: Shaheen Afridi, Salman Mirza, Abrar Ahmed
As far as Pakistan’s bowling is concerned, it did its job in the first match in favorable conditions for the bowlers and would like to repeat the same performance against Sri Lanka.
Due to the rotation policy that the team has adopted for a long time in terms of bowling resources, the Men in Green can rest ODI captain and experienced fast bowler Shaheen Afridi.
There could be a scenario where Abrar Ahmed is rested and Pakistan bring in an extra seamer depending on the nature of the wicket.
In all likelihood, the only name in the final eleven will be Mohammad Nawaz, as he has been in great form with both bat and ball in the last few months.
