Pakistan closed the opening day of the first Test against Sri Lanka on 281 for 5 at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium on Monday, with Saud Shakeel unbeaten on 57 and wicketkeeper Ghazi Ghori on 7. Bad light brought play to an end about 15 minutes early, with only 67.2 of the scheduled 90 overs bowled, but the home side will be the happier dressing room after four of their batters reached fifty on a day Sri Lanka chose to bowl first.
The Saud Shakeel fifty was the fourth half-century of the day, and the most patient of them. The left-hander came to the crease with Pakistan on 159 for 3 after Babar Azam’s dismissal, and he was still there at stumps, 57 not out from 112 balls with seven fours. He reached his fifty from 103 balls, shared a 68-run stand with debutant Mohammad Taha, and then saw out the fading light with Ghori after Salman Ali Agha’s departure for 16. It was not a fluent innings, but it was exactly what the situation asked for, and it left Pakistan in a strong position overnight.
Saud Shakeel fifty anchors Pakistan’s close
Shakeel’s innings was built on patience rather than strokeplay. He took 103 balls to reach his fifty, with six fours at that point, and he added just one more boundary before stumps as the light closed in. He was watchful against Sri Lanka’s seamers, left well outside off stump, and punished the rare loose ball through the covers. His stand with Taha, worth 68 runs, steadied Pakistan after Babar’s dismissal, and his unbroken partnership with Ghori carried the side through the final overs of a day cut short by bad light.
The value of the Saud Shakeel fifty is best measured against the state of the match. Pakistan had lost three wickets for 68 runs across the middle of the day, and a further wicket in the final session could have handed Sri Lanka the honours. Instead, Shakeel’s unbeaten 57 means Pakistan resume on Tuesday with five wickets in hand and a total already past 280, on a pitch that has offered the bowlers little since the first hour.
Debutants Tayyab Arif and Mohammad Taha set the tone
The day belonged first to Pakistan’s debutants. Twenty-year-old opener Tayyab Arif, playing his maiden first-class season, struck 57 from just 51 balls, with nine fours and a six, and he put on 86 for the first wicket with Azan Awais, who made 30. Tayyab reached his fifty from 46 balls, the fastest of the day, before Asitha Fernando found his edge and Kusal Mendis took the catch. Awais had gone shortly before, caught behind off Milan Rathnayaka.
Mohammad Taha, batting at number three on debut, was the other debutant to reach fifty, making a patient 51 from 105 balls. He was dropped on 30 by Pasindu Sooriyabandara at short midwicket, a miss Sri Lanka would regret, and he went on to share stands with both Babar and Shakeel before Sonal Dinusha had him caught by Dhananjaya de Silva at 227 for 4. Pakistan handed Test debuts to four players in all: Tayyab, Taha, all-rounder Arafat Minhas and fast bowler Saqib Khan.
Babar Azam’s fifty, then a wobble before tea
Between the two debutant fifties came the captain’s. Babar Azam reached his 35th Test fifty from 54 balls, striking seven fours in a 58-ball innings, and Pakistan went to lunch on 137 for 2 with the match firmly in their control. But Babar could not turn the start into the hundred his record has been waiting for: he fell to Dilshan Madushanka after lunch, and he has now gone 41 innings without a Test century, his last coming against New Zealand in Karachi in December 2022.
Taha and Shakeel rebuilt after Babar’s departure, taking Pakistan to 214 for 3 at tea, but the final session brought one more wicket. Salman Ali Agha made 16 before edging Fernando to Mendis, the Sri Lankan wicketkeeper’s fourth catch of the innings. Asitha Fernando finished as the pick of Sri Lanka’s bowlers with two for 64, while Madushanka, Rathnayaka and Dinusha took one wicket each.
Sri Lanka’s gamble, and what Day 2 holds
Sri Lanka’s decision to bowl first on what looked a green pitch has not paid off as they hoped. They went in with a pace quartet and no frontline spinner, yet the surface offered their fast bowlers little after the first hour, and their slow over rate cost them further as only 67.2 overs were possible before bad light ended the day. Lahiru Kumara went wicketless for 70 runs from 16 overs.
Play resumes on Tuesday morning with Shakeel and Ghori at the crease and Pakistan looking to push past 350 and bat Sri Lanka out of the game. The stakes are high for the home side: Pakistan must win this two-match series to keep their World Test Championship final hopes alive, having lost 3-0 to England in their last series and won only two of their last nine Tests. The second and final Test is in Lahore from 17 to 21 November.
Sources and related reading: the day’s play is reported by AFP, and the full scorecard is available from Technosports. Our coverage of the earlier milestones: Mohammad Taha’s maiden fifty on debut, and Babar Azam’s 35th Test fifty.
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