KARACHI: The wait for cricket fans in Karachi to witness an ODI at National Stadium is set to be over on Monday when Pakistan will take on Sri Lanka in the second ODI here.
The first match between the two teams was called off due to rain without a ball being bowled, making the series virtually a two-match encounter.
The weather for Monday is forecast to be dry and bright giving hopes to cricket deprived fans of action packed competition after the match was pushed for a day in an attempt to allow groundsmen to prepare the venue for the game after heavy rains that hit the city for five consecutive days.
Both the teams had their pre-match training session at National Stadium ahead of the match with Sri Lankan sweating it out in hot and humid Sunday afternoon.
“Challenge today was the heat from rain, it was sunny but the focus was for the batsmen was to know what they are going to face and do match related things which we discussed at training, whatever they wanted to try they should train,” said Sri Lanka’s head coach Rumesh Ratnayake said after the three-hour long training session.
Sri Lanka is without their ten main players in the series, but Ratnayake feels that this factor doesn’t make the visitors any less important team and the players know what is expected from them.
Pakistan, at the other hand, will look forward to continue its good run against the Sri Lanka in white-ball cricket.
Although, the last two of their scheduled ODIs were washedout without a ball being bowled, the six previous completed matches were resulted in Pakistan’s favor.
The home team is looking to go full-strength at home ground and in front of home crowd.
Having aggressive batsman Fakhar Zaman with inform Imam ul Haq and Babar Azam in batting along with Wahab Riaz and Mohammad Amir in bowling give Pakistan an edge against the visiting Sri Lanka.
Pakistan team’s young all-rounder Shadab Khan says that players are looking forward to make this game a memorable one.
“Everyone has this dream of playing at home ground, and every player wants to do well in front of cheering home crowd,” Khan told media in Karachi on Sunday.
This will be first ODI in Karachi in 10 years with Sri Lanka playing the last 50-over match at the iconic National Stadium in 2009. Pakistan, although, last hosted an ODI in 2015 when Zimbabwe toured the country to play three ODIs and two T20Is in Lahore.