HAMBANTOTA: Pakistan face Afghanistan in a three-match One-day International series in Sri Lanka starting Tuesday, with skipper Babar Azam seeing it as good preparation for the Asia Cup and World Cup.

The first bilateral ODI series between the two teams will be followed by the six-nation Asia Cup, in Sri Lanka and Pakistan, beginning on August 30 and the World Cup in India from October 5.

It is a home series for Afghanistan who cannot stage international cricket in their own country because of security fears.

“These three matches are a good opportunity for us to test our players in the match situation,” Babar told AFP.

Babar is the top-ranked ODI batsman and leads a strong side that also boasts openers Fakhar Zaman and Imam-ul-Haq — ranked three and four respectively.

They are backed up by a potent pace attack of Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf.

Afghanistan have world-class spinner Rashid Khan fit again after he withdrew from The Hundred competition in England.

“Afghanistan have developed into a good side,” said Babar of a team which beat Bangladesh 2-1 in an ODI series last month. “We are not going to take these matches lightly,” he added., despite Pakistan having won all four ODIs against Afghanistan since the countries first met in 2012.

“We have good players who can deal with spin bowling so it is going to be an exciting series.”

Pakistan go into the series with a 2-0 Test series clean sweep of Sri Lanka, which saw Babar Azam and co. demonstrate an attacking approach.

“We enter this series with good momentum following our Test series win here and we are eager to build on it,” Babar said in a video interview released by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on the eve of the first ODI.

While Pakistan are a well-balanced ODI unit on paper, they have included upcoming batters Tayyab Tahir and Saud Shakeel in the squad.

While Tayyab has won his place thanks to a scintillating century in the Emerging Teams Asia Cup final against India last month, Saud’s recent show in the Test matches against Sri Lanka and his ability to dominate spin has helped him earn a place in the ODI squad.

Pace bowling all-rounder Faheem Ashraf has also returned to add more variety to the Pakistan roster.

“Faheem has been in and out of the side but he has performed well recently,” said Babar. “We have included him because of his all-round abilities and believe that his presence will strengthen the side.

“Tayyab Tahir had a good [Emerging Teams] Asia Cup and he performed well here in Sri Lanka and everyone saw how Saud Shakeel played Tests here.”

Afghanistan are captained by batsman Hashmatullah Shahidi and have new faces in fast bowlers Abdul Rahman, Mohammad Saleem Safi and Wafadar Momand.

Tuesday’s match is being played in Hambantota, with the remaining two in Colombo on Thursday and Saturday.

Squads:

AFGHANISTAN: Hashm­atullah Shahidi (captain), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ikram Alikhil, Ibrahim Zadran, Riaz Hassan, Rahmat Shah, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmad, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Abdul Rahman, Mohammad Saleem Safi, Wafadar Momand.

PAKISTAN: Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan, Mohammad Rizwan, Fakhar Zaman, Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, Saud Shakeel, Agha Salman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Usama Mir, Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Tayyab Tahir, Mohammad Haris, Faheem Ashraf, Mohammad Wasim.

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2023