KARACHI: Skipper Azhar Ali and his charges are aiming for a victory in the ‘memorable’ series when the second and final Test against Sri Lanka commences at National Stadium here on Thursday (today). Having already realised the dream of playing a Test in front of the home crowd in the drawn opening match against Sri Lanka in Rawalpindi, Azhar said Wednesday that his team were eyeing a win in Karachi to make the series ‘memorable’. The two-match series marks Pakistan’s first Tests on home soil since a militant attack in 2009 on Sri Lanka’s team bus in Lahore. That attack left six security personnel and two civilians dead and six players injured, and meant Pakistan spent the next decade in the test wilderness as teams refused to play there. The series is also part of the World Test Championship, which sees the top nine Test nations face-off over a two-year period, scoring points based on their success and culminating in a final at Lord’s in June 2021.
Pakistan have lost six out of their last seven Tests and Azhar said. “We all dreamt of Test cricket’s return to Pakistan and wanted to play in front of our home crowd,” he told reporters. “It’s a matter of great happiness. Along with that it’s also the World Test Championship and we want to make our first series at home memorable by winning this Test. We will try our best to perform well as a team and produce a good result. It is a home series and this is a big opportunity for any team, especially as a part of the WTC, that you utilise the home advantage and win these Tests at home.”
Karachi’s National Stadium will be under spotlight. Since hosting the first Test between Pakistan and India in 1955, the stadium has staged some of the most riveting red-ball encounters and has earned the reputation of being Pakistan cricket’s fortress because of the national side’s prolific record here. In 41 matches, Pakistan have come out victorious on 21 occasions and 18 matches have been drawn. The home team have lost two matches at the stadium, one of them being the famous England win in gloom in December 2000. Despite the Rawalpindi washout, Pakistan gained a psychological edge against the Sri Lankans with Abid Ali and Babar Azam notching hundreds to steer their team to 252-2 in reply to Sri Lanka’s 308-6 declared. It was extra special for Abid, who became the first batsman to follow a one-day debut century –– against Australia in Dubai in March this year –– with a hundred in his first Test. Pakistan will likely make one change from the first Test, with leg-spinner Yasir Shah replacing fast bowler Usman Shinwari, who has been ruled out with typhoid. Azhar will also hope to regain his own batting form, having managed just 36 at Rawalpindi following his miserable 62 in four innings in Australia and 59 in six innings in South Africa earlier this year.
The Pakistan skipper was also unfazed by the criticism he was facing because of lack of runs in the recent past. “When you aren’t performing then there is nothing wrong with critics and criticism, this is what happens in cricket. When you perform, you get praise. I will try to play the best innings I can for the team. If that’s a big innings, I haven’t made runs for a while so the more the better. I will try to play a big innings here,” he said.