{"id":2882,"date":"2026-10-18T10:03:45","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T05:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2882"},"modified":"2026-10-18T10:03:45","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T05:03:45","slug":"pakistan-face-sri-lanka-in-tri-series-opener-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2882","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan face Sri Lanka in tri-series opener today"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The tri-nation ODI series involving Pakistan, England and Sri Lanka is set to begin today (Sunday), with hosts Pakistan taking on Sri Lanka in the opening match at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The toss for each match will take place at 12.30pm while all matches will start at 1pm.<\/p>\n

England will play their first match against the hosts on October 20 before facing Sri Lanka two days later.<\/p>\n

The remaining matches, including the final on October 31 between the top two teams, will be played in Lahore.<\/p>\n

Pakistan is led by Shaheen Shah Afridi, England will be captained by Harry Brook, while Kusal Mendis will lead Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

The tournament will be the fourth ODI tri-nation series hosted by Pakistan, following competitions involving Australia and South Africa in 1994, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in 2004, and New Zealand and South Africa in 2025.<\/p>\n

Pakistan\u2019s ODI squad assembled in Islamabad on October 14 and trained for three consecutive days ahead of the opening match.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka\u2019s players arrived on October 12 and began training two days later, while England arrived on October 16 and will have three training sessions before their first fixture.<\/p>\n

Pakistan have won 96 of their 160 ODI encounters against Sri Lanka, with one match tied and four ending without a result.<\/p>\n

Against England, Pakistan have won 32 of 92 ODIs, with three matches producing no result.<\/p>\n

Pakistan have won three of their last four ODI series, beating South Africa 2-1, Sri Lanka 3-0 and Australia 2-1.<\/p>\n

Their only defeat in that run came against Bangladesh, who won their series 2-1.<\/p>\n

England enter the tournament after winning three consecutive ODI series, including victories over Sri Lanka and India.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka, meanwhile, won their recent three-match series against the West Indies 1-0 and lost to England.<\/p>\n

Babar Azam, England\u2019s Joe Root and Sri Lanka captain Mendis will be among the batters to watch, having scored consistently for their respective sides over the past decade.<\/p>\n

Uncapped players Razaullah and Saad Baig are included in Pakistan\u2019s squad.<\/p>\n

Afridi said Pakistan were looking forward to starting a busy home season against two strong opponents, adding that the tournament would be competitive given the quality of players involved.<\/p>\n

The Pakistan captain said three consecutive days of training would help his side prepare for matches against Sri Lanka and England within a short period before the action moves to Lahore.<\/p>\n

He added that the combination of young talent and experienced players would give Pakistan options at different stages of the 50-over game.<\/p>\n

Brook described the tournament as a major challenge, citing the different playing conditions and the prospect of competing in front of Pakistani fans.<\/p>\n

He said England wanted to adapt to conditions and find different ways to win, adding that the opportunity to reach the final would provide another test for his team.<\/p>\n

Mendis said Sri Lanka were looking forward to competing against two strong sides and aimed to perform at the highest level.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The tri-nation ODI series involving Pakistan, England and Sri Lanka is set to begin today (Sunday), with hosts Pakistan taking on Sri Lanka in the opening match at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium. The toss for each match will take place at 12.30pm while all matches will start at 1pm. England will play their first match against the hosts on October 20 before facing Sri Lanka two days later. The remaining matches, including the final on October 31 between the top two teams, will be played in Lahore. Pakistan is led by…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2882\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}