Tharanga out

Pakistan v Sri Lanka, 1st ODI, Dubai

Tharanga out

Sri Lanka 69/3 (18.3 ov)

Usual suspects return, Sri Lanka bat

The Report by Nitin Sundar

November 11, 2011

On winning the toss, Sri Lanka expectedly decided to bat, but there were a couple of surprises in the Pakistan combination for the first ODI in Dubai. Shoaib Malik, who was expected to play despite being benched for the Tests, remained out of the XI, while Shahid Afridi and Abdul Razzaq joined Mohammad Hafeez as the allrounders. Aizaz Cheema pipped Junaid Khan and is likely to take the new balls with Umar Gul. Imran Farhat and Umar Akmal also reappeared in their respective positions in the ODI line-up.

Misbah ul Haq and Tillakaratne Dilshan

Upul Tharanga and Dinesh Chandimal were included in the Sri Lankan line-up, fortifying their batting unit which struggled through the Tests. Tillakaratne Dilshan returned to his familiar opening spot, while allrounder Seekkuge Prasanna and limited-overs specialist Lasith Malinga also came into the equation.

Pakistan: 1 Imran Farhat, 2 Mohammad Hafeez, 3 Younis Khan, 4 Umar Akmal, 5 Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), 6 Shahid Afridi, 7 Abdul Razzaq, 8 Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), 9 Umar Gul, 10 Saeed Ajmal, 11 Aizaz Cheema

Sri Lanka: 1 Upul Tharanga, 2 Tillakaratne Dilshan (capt), 3 Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 4 Dinesh Chandimal, 5 Mahela Jayawardene, 6 Angelo Mathews, 7 Kosala Kulasekara, 8 Seekkuge Prasanna, 9 Lasith Malinga, 10 Suranga Lakmal, 11 Dilhara Fernando

Nitin Sundar is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo

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M Usman Arshad