No team can be tagged a favourite in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 series, says Mohammed Hafeez – Cricket News Update
Newly appointed skipper of Pakistan’s T20 team, Mohammed Hafeez, foresees a tough tour of Sri Lanka.
The all-rounder, who’ll be leading the Men in Green for the first time, said that no team can be tagged a favourite in this series, even though Pakistan has had Sri Lanka’s number in recent clashes.
While talking to reporters at a press conference held after the Pakistani team arrived in Sri Lanka, Hafeez said, “No one can really predict the outcome. It will be a good tough series. We all know that Sri Lanka is always good
on their own soil and we are looking forward to a very tough series.”
The 31-year-old cricketer from http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Punjab-c833 further added, “We have experience playing them. We have had success against them in the recent times but it will be a really tough competition the third time.”
The last time these two sides collided, it was the Men in Green who emerged victorious. The series was played in UAE, where Pakistan has loads of experience and conditions also suite their style of play.
However, the story will be different this time around as Sri Lanka will play in familiar conditions.
Pakistan’s seven week tour of Sri Lanka kicks off with two T20 matches at the Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium, Hambantota, on Friday, June 1 and Sunday, June 3 respectively. Five ODI’s and three Test matches follow
the T20 series.
Pakistani players have been out of T20 action for some time now. The Green Shirts' last T20 outing was against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/United-Arab-Emirates-c3033 (UAE), during the month of February.
Since then Pakistani players have not featured in any major T20 competition. Sri Lankan cricketers, on the other hand, took part in the recent Indian Premier League (IPL5).
Despite the lack of match practice, Hafeez is very satisfied with his team’s preparations.
“I personally feel the boys have worked really hard in the last one and a half months. Although we were not playing any international cricket (recently) some of the guys were doing their own training and the PCB arranged some matches
for us to get match practice,” Hafeez replied to a question on Pakistan’s preparation for the series.
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