Sri Lanka Opt to Bat; Herath Returns

Pallekele: Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene won the toss, and keeping with the pattern in the few matches so far in the tour, opted to bat in first ODi against Pakistan at Pallekele on Thursday.

The pitch at Hambantota produced two low-scoring Twenty20 games, but the surface at Pallekele is expected to be more batsman-friendly.

Sri Lanka bringing in the left-arm spinner Rangana Herath, who was rested for the Asia Cup in March. Their seam-heavy attack includes the allrounders Thisara Perera and Angelo Mathews. Lasith Malinga returned after missing the second Twenty20.

Sohail Tanvir, who was retained after his sound performances in the Twenty20s, was picked to lend more variety to Pakistan's seam line-up, which also included the returning Mohammad Sami. The visitors went in with six specialist seamers, including two spin-allrounders.

Pakistan won five from last six ODIs against Sri Lanka.

Teams

Sri Lanka: Mahela Jayawardene (capt), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Upul Tharanga, Dinesh Chandimal, Kumar Sangakkara (wk), Lahiru Thirimanne, Angelo Mathews, Thisara Perera, Nuwan Kulasekara, Rangana Herath, Lasith Malinga

Pakistan: Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), Mohammad Hafeez, Azhar Ali, Younis Khan, Umar Akmal, Shahid Afridi, Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Sohail Tanvir, Mohammad Sami

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