Pakistan cricket team have made wholesale changes to their playing XI in their final Super 8 fixture against Sri Lanka. Salman Ali Agha and co. have dropped the likes of Babar Azam and Saim Ayub for the game in Pallekele. The team needs to beat SL by a huge margin in order to stand a chance of making it to the T20 Word Cup 2026 semi-finals.
Pakistan playing XI vs SL
Sahibzada Farhan, Fakhar Zaman, Salman Agha(c), Khawaja Nafay, Usman Khan(w), Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Abrar Ahmed, Usman Tariq
Speaking at the toss, Pakistan skipper Salman Ali Agha confirmed three changes in the playing XI, noting that veteran Babar Azam was out apart from Salman Mirza and all-rounder Saim Ayub. In their places, the team has brought in Naseem Shah, Khawaja Nafay and Abrar Ahmed. Shaheen has been retained in the line-up after bagging a four-wicket haul in the previous game. Pakistan have stuck with three spinnes in the form of two specialists – Usman and Abrar – apart from Nawaz and Shadab. Naseem has been included in the line-up for his first match of the T20 World Cup 2026 and will partner with Shaheen in the pace department.
Fakhar Zaman, an experienced campaigner, will open the innings along with Farhan, in place of Ayub. Nafay, who featured last in the game against Namibia, has been given another chance and is slotted to bat at number 4.
“We’ll just try to play a perfect game and I think the rest will be fine. Yeah, we got three changes. Babar Azam, Saim Ayub, and Salman Mirza are not playing. Naseem Shah, Khawaja Nafay, and Abrar Ahmed are playing,” Salman Ali Agha said.
After their game against New Zealand was washed out, Pakistan lost to England by two wickets. Pakistan need to defend the target with the magic number being roughly 64–65 runs, depending on the total they put up.
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