Pakistan captain Younus Khan said yesterday his team are ready to rise to the challenge of the Test series against Sri Lanka but admitted they were under pressure following their World Twenty20 victory.
Younus said his team should carry forward inspiration of their success in England but knuckle down for a possible resurgent Sri Lankan team whom they defeated in the final at Lord’s last week to clinch the T20 title.
“The Sri Lanka tour will be a big challenge,” said Younus ahead of the team’s departure today.
PHOTO: AFP
“The celebrations become a matter of the past when you embark on the next tour, so I hope players get in the different mood soon,” he said.
Pakistan will play three Tests, five one-day internationals and a Twenty20 match on their tour. The first Test starts at Galle next Saturday.
Pakistan beat Sri Lanka on both previous tours but Younus said their new-look rivals will be tough opponents.
“In Kumar Sangakkara, Sri Lanka have a wise captain and their team is balanced with quality players, so we will have to be at our best to get positive results,” said Younus, who will be on his first Test tour as captain.
“It will be double pressure on us because our people want wins in every match and after the T20 success they want more success and that can put pressure on us, but we are ready for it,” he said.
Younus believes Test cricket is the purest form of the game and both teams are adept at changing their skills in the various forms of the game.
“Twenty20 cricket was different and now Test cricket is different, it seriously tests the abilities of a player whereas I don’t think the abilities of a player can be gauged in a T20 match,” Younus said.
Pakistan will be boosted by the return of ace batsman Mohammad Yousuf and all-rounder Abdul Razzaq.
Both Yousuf and Razzaq were included in the 15-man squad after they broke ties with the unrecognized Indian Cricket League earlier this month.
They joined the rebel league in 2007 and as a result had been banned from all cricket in Pakistan.
College basketballer Kaitlyn Chen has become the first female player of Taiwanese descent to be drafted by a WNBA team, after the Golden State Valkyries selected her in the third and final round of the league’s draft on Monday. Chen, a point guard who played her first three seasons in college for Princeton University, transferred to the University of Connecticut (UConn) for her final season, which culminated in a national championship earlier this month. While at Princeton, Chen was named the Ivy League tournament’s most outstanding player three times from 2022 to last year. Prior to the draft, ESPN described Chen as
College basketballer Kaitlyn Chen (陳凱玲) has become the first player of Taiwanese descent to be drafted by a WNBA team, after being selected by the Golden State Valkyries in the third and final round of the league's draft yesterday. Chen, a point guard who played her first three seasons in college for Princeton University, transferred to the University of Connecticut (UConn) for her final season, which culminated in a national championship on April 6. While at Princeton, Chen was named the Ivy League tournament's most outstanding player three times from 2022 to last year. Prior to the draft, ESPN described Chen as a
Robinson Cano spent 17 seasons playing in the MLB in front of all kinds of baseball fans, but he said there is something special about his stint with the Mexican Baseball League’s Diablos Rojos. He is not alone. The league last week opened its 100th season, aiming to keep an impressive growth in attendance that began after the national team’s surprise run at the 2023 World Baseball Classic, and is already surpassing some first-division soccer clubs. After finishing third in the 2023 tournament, many casual fans, some of them soccer enthusiasts disappointed after Mexico were eliminated in the first round in the 2022
Kumar Rocker, a first-round pick in both the 2021 and 2022 drafts, on Thursday won for the first time in the major leagues. Rocker struck out a career-best eight in a career-best seven innings as the Texas Rangers beat the Los Angeles Angels 5-3 to complete a three-game sweep. Rocker (1-2) threw a career-high 78 pitches and allowed three runs on five hits without a walk. The 25-year-old right-hander was drafted third overall by Texas in 2022, a year after concerns over a physical led to him going unsigned by the New York Mets as the 10th overall pick. He made his major
RSS