PHOTO COURTESY: PCB
The two sides will face each other in three Tests, five ODIs and two T20Is and they will lock horns in longest format first.
Pakistan has been doing well in the Whites as compared to their ODI performances under Waqar and the official admitted that the his team is a better unit in Test format as compared to the other two formats.
“We’re a better batting unit in Tests as compared to our bowling which is a bit inexperienced and hopefully we’ll do well,” Waqar said while speaking to media at the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) headquarters in Lahore.
“In Test matches our batting has been the strength. In last few years the way our Test team has matured it hasn’t been the same case in T20Is and ODIs. We’ve got a settled batting unit which will help us.”
It has been a pleasant change with positive words coming out from Waqar which was not the case previously. He had earlier stated before team’s departure for World Cup and then to Bangladesh that people should not have high hopes from the national team.
The former captain was criticized strongly for his guilty approach as the experts believed that he should embark on a mission with positive words.
While the team will be involved in Tests upfront, Waqar had to face flood of bouncers regarding teams chances of qualifying in the Champions Trophy and he remains positive that the Men in Green would break into top eighth before the cut-off date of September 30, 2015.
“I’m hopeful that Pakistan will qualify for the champions. Our ODI team is certainly not weak but not as strong as Test side. We’ll try to win maximum matches against Sri Lanka to qualify for Champions Trophy in the ODI series,” he added.
“Sri Lanka will not have two key players Mahela Jayawardena and Kumar Sangakkara so that will be advantageous to us but yet we can’t take them lightly. It will be a wrong approach to take our opponents for granted in absence of two important players.”
Waqar expressed satisfaction over the revival of international cricket in Pakistan and stressed that it has been a real big morale booster for the players to finally play at home and the team will take that confidence going into the series against Sri Lanka.
He also urged the critics to understand that there has been big void left by suspension and then ineffectiveness in bowling of Saeed Ajmal as he had been a match-winner for last four-five years while Waqar further blamed the long injury list for team’s indifferent results in ODIs.
“The last few months have not been easy as we lost Ajmal and Mohammad Hafeez with suspension and it created a big void. Then there were too many injuries which led to indifferent results in 50-over format,” he explained.
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