Hug

Picture Credit: Twitter/@PCB

The whole world is celebrating the festival of Eid al-Adha on Sunday. Pakistan Cricket team players who are in Sri Lanka also celebrated the festival with each other at the team hotel in Colombo. The players offered prayers and greeted each other before departing for training at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) shared a video of the players and support staff greeting each other. Captain Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf, and Hasan Ali are all seen hugging each other and greeting ‘Eid Mubarak’. “Eid Mubarak from Colombo. The players offer Eid-ul-Azha prayers at the team hotel,” the PCB wrote in the caption of the social media post.

Notably, the Men in Green are in Sri Lanka for a two-match Test series starting on 16 July. The two teams will also play a warm-up fixture starting on 11 July. The PCB announced an 18-member squad for the series a few days ago. Veteran leg-spinner Yasir Shah made a comeback to the Test side after being sidelined following a thumb injury he sustained in the National T20 Cup last year.

The first Test will be played from 16-20 July at the Galle Cricket Stadium. Meanwhile, the second Test will be played from 24-28 July in Colombo.

We want to play positively: Babar Azam

Ahead of departing for the Island nation, Pakistan captain Babar Azam had said that his team wants to play positive cricket irrespective of the situation. “We are trying to change the way we play Test cricket. Not easy for batters when the other team is dominating you. We want to play positively irrespective of the situation but it is only on a given day that we can decide how to win the match and our strategy,” Babar said in a press conference ahead of the Sri Lanka tour.

Pakistan Squad for Sri Lanka Tests: Babar Azam (captain), Mohammad Rizwan (vice-captain/wicketkeeper), Abdullah Shafique, Azhar Ali, Faheem Ashraf, Fawad Alam, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Nawaz, Naseem Shah, Nauman Ali, Salman Ali Agha, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wicketkeeper), Saud Shakeel, Shaheen Afridi, Shan Masood and Yasir Shah.