Pallekele hosts all the three matches of the SL vs AFG ODI series. The first ODI starts at 2.30 pm IST on February 9, Friday. The second and third games will be played on February 11 and February 14 respectively.
Sri Lanka are leading into this series after their win over Afghanistan in the Only Test. They won the match by 10 wickets. Afghanistan scored 198 and 296 in response to Sri Lanka’s first-innings score of 439. They then chased down 56 in the second innings to win the Test match by 10 wickets.
Afghanistan is expected to be a more competitive side in the ODI series. They won their last ODI game played against Sri Lanka in the World Cup. They have played 12 games against Sri Lanka winning four games. In this series, they have a chance to add to that tally. Hasmtullah Shahidi will lead the side. He will not have Rashid Khan in his side who is still recovering from his lower-back injury.
Many Afghan players who were playing in the ILT20 have joined the national team. Noor Ahmad joined the side from SA20 where he was playing for the Durban Super Giants. Afghanistan have an overall good side capable of challenging Sri Lanka in their home conditions.
The visitors will miss the services of their star leg-spinner Rashid Khan, who is yet to recover from his back injury. In the absence of Rashid, youngster Qais Ahmed has been included in the 15-man squad as his replacement. Furthermore, pacer Mohammad Saleem has been sidelined with a hamstring injury. All-rounder Gulbadin Naib has earned a recall to the ODI side after he impressed in Afghanistan’s last series against India.
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Sri Lanka, on the other hand, will be led by Kusal Mendis. He was named the ODI skipper after the World Cup. They played an ODI and T20I series against Zimbabwe before this series against Afghanistan. They won the ODI series 2-0 but were pushed to the brink. Zimbabwe challenged them even harder in the T20I series levelling it 1-1 but losing the decider unfortunately.
The Lankans have been a bit vulnerable at home against Sri Lanka. Afghanistan with an in-form bowling unit with a lot of T20I cricket behind them is expected to exploit the conditions in Pallekele. The Lankans have Theekshana and Hasaranga to counter the Afghan spin challenge as well.
Afghanistan and Sri Lanka have played 12 ODIs with the Lankans winning seven and Afghanistan four games. In four T20s, the Lankans have won three matches and Afghanistan one. Ahmad Shah Sulimankhil, the newly appointed interim Chief Selector spoke about the team’s 10-day preparatory camp in Abu Dhabi to get themselves adjusted to the conditions.
SL vs AFG Weather Report Live Today And Pitch Report Of Pallekele International Cricket Stadium – 1st ODI, 2024
The SL vs AFG first ODI starts at 2.30 pm IST. It’s a day-night game with dew expected to play a big role in the second innings of the game. The temperature will be as high as 31 degrees during the day. The conditions will be much cooler in the evening with the temperature around 18 degrees. There is a negligible chance of rain in the evening.
Speaking about the venue, it has hosted 39 ODi matches with 15 matches won by the team batting first and 22 batting second. Thus captains prefer to chase at this venue given the dew in the evening. The average first innings score is close to 250. However, with big hitters on both sides, we can expect a high-scoring contest.
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