Lahore, Oct 30 (PTI) Pakistan’s head coach Mike Hesson will be hoping his team can finally win a multi-team one-day tournament at home when they take on Sri Lanka in the final of the triangular series here on Saturday.
Pakistan have never won an ODI tournament at home featuring three or more teams although last year they beat Sri Lanka in the final of a triangular T20 International event that also featured Zimbabwe.
Hesson, who took charge of the team in May, 2025, is aware that fans in Pakistan are expecting more from the team under his supervision despite the fact that they recently beat Australia 2-1 in a bilateral one-day series.
England’s defeat to Sri Lanka and Pakistan in the league phase of the triangular event meant that the two sub-continent sides will meet each other in the final.
England, though, signed off from the tournament with a consolation win over Sri Lanka on Thursday.
Pakistan waded through their own problems in the tournament despite winning three matches, and the most haunting among them is the failure of their top four batters to click so far.
England’s Ben Duckett with two hundreds including a 167 against Sri Lanka in the last league match has, in fact, scored more runs in the
tournament than the combined total of the top four Pakistan batters.
Pakistan have suffered top-order collapses in their last two games which Hesson acknowledged was unexpected.
They escaped with a one-wicket win due to a last wicket partnership of 89 runs between centurion Shadab Khan and Haris Rauf against England.
But they were not so lucky against Sri Lanka who bowled them out for 110 runs to easily win the return game.
However, Hesson placed faith on Pakistan top-order batters, notably Fakhar Zaman and Babar Zaman, to deliver in the final.
“The good thing is that despite the top order not firing away the others have responded and we have won three group matches,” Hesson told the media in the pre-match press conference.
Sri Lanka in contrast will go into the final knowing that they beat the same side in the Asia Cup final in 2023.
The good news for them is that batters Pavan Rathnayake, Janith Liyanage and Dasun Shanaka have shown great form along with captain Kusal Mendis.
Rathnayake has been in prime form with two hundreds here while opener Avishka Fernando has also given good starts with some solid knocks.
Squads
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Pakistan: Shaheen Shah Afridi (captain), Babar Azam, Sahabzada Farhan, Falhar Zaman, Maaz Sadaqat, Hasan Nawaz, Salman Ali Agha, Saad Baig, Ghazi Ghori, Arafat Minhas, Faheem Ashraf, Shadab Khan, Haris Rauf, Razaullah, Abrar Ahmed, Naseem Shah.
Sri Lanka: Kusal Mendis (captain), Avishka Fernando, Kamil Mishara, Pavan Rathnayake, Janith Liyanage, Lahiru Udara, Kamindu Mendis, Sahan Arachchige, Dasun Shanaka, Dunith Wellalage, Maheesh Theekshana, Sachindu Colombage, Dushmantha Chameera, Asitha Fernando, Dilshan Madushanka and Ehsan Malinga.
Match starts at 1.30 pm IST.
(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)